Karin Beve Kastetter

Karin Louise BÈve LaBruce Kastetter of Hendersonville, NC, passed away on September 24, 2009, after a six-year battle with breast cancer.

Born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Carl-Eric and Ludmila (Mimi) Koshkin BÈve, Karin celebrated her Swedish-Russian heritage. Upon her graduation from high school in Baltimore, Karin spent two years studying at the University of Stockholm, learning and maintaining a fluency in Swedish which served her throughout her life.

For seventeen years, Karin was the wife of a prominent Charleston, SC, physician, starting a young family and serving on the boards of a number of charitable organizations, most notably on the state and national boards of the American Cancer Society and the American Medical Association Auxiliary.

In 1984, she married Jim and turned her charitable avocations into a professional career in non-profit work. First, she worked alongside Jim in administration in independent boarding schools, and later shifted her efforts to fundraising in continuing care retirement communities.

After serving as the Director of Development and Community Relations at Rappahannock-Westminster Canterbury Retirement Community in Kilmarnock, VA, for six years, she came to Deerfield in 1996 as its first, and so far only, Development and Community Relations Director. Karinís initial development drive was in support multiple capital campaign projects that complimented the $74 million expansion from 1997 to its culmination in 2001 that saw the campus grow exponentially and become one of the premier continuing care retirement communities in the Southeast. This included major refurbishments of the Timson House and St.Giles Chapel as well as the development of a new state of the art aquatic center.

Karinís work at Deerfield allowed her to become active in many projects of the Episcopal Churchís Diocese of Western North Carolina, particularly in the establishment of the Lake Logan Episcopal Center, upon whose board she sat at the time of her passing. She also served in multiple officer positions of the Asheville-Biltmore Rotary Club including serving as the clubs President.

Surviving Karin are her adoring husband Jim, of Hendersonville; daughters Kristin Nicole LaBruce of Charleston, SC and Natasha Helene LaBruce of Charlotte, NC; great-granddaughter Nicole LaBruce of Charleston, SC; and; Karinís brother Carl-Eric BÈve, Jr., of Baltimore, and a number of cousins in her fatherís native Sweden.

A memorial service will be held at Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Community at 4 PM Thursday, October 8, 2009. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Deerfield Episcopal Retirement Communityís Residency Fund at 1618 Hendersonville Road, Asheville, NC, 28803, or the Lake Logan Episcopal Conference Center Debt Reduction Fund, at 154 Suncrest Mill Road, Canton, NC 28716.