Penelope Kreinberg Obituary

Penelope Pettit Kreinberg passed away peacefully on October 7, 2025 in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by her family. The many people whose lives she touched knew her as Penny, or if they were among the really lucky, as Mom, Grandma, or Nana. A counselor, world traveler, child healthcare advocate and community leader, avid reader, and accomplished artist, Penny's gifts were multiple, and she will be sorely missed by her husband of 57 years, Robert "Bob" Kreinberg, Jr., her son, Joshua Kreinberg, her daughters, Patricia Vrooman and Sarah Kreinberg, her grandchildren, Jason, Tim, and Julia Kreinberg, and Sam, Annie, and Josephine Vrooman, her daughter-in-law, Kirsten Harbers, son-in-law, Gary Vrooman, and her two surviving brothers, William Pettit, Jr., and Donald Pettit.
Penny was born in New York in 1946, to William Pettit, Sr. and Carole Pettit. She grew up in Princeton, New Jersey, and developed her family focus early as the second child in a family with five children often caring for her three younger brothers. She attended Miss Fine's School for Girls before heading to Cornell University in 1964. Known around campus as an active member of the Delta Gamma sorority and the owner of a dog named "Anheuser Busch" (or "Bud" for short) whom she brought with her everywhere at school, she graduated in 1968 as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a triple major BA in anthropology, sociology, and psychology.
During her years at Cornell, Penny met Bob, who also attended Cornell. Like all good nearly 60-year relationships should, theirs started when they met on a beach in Fort Lauderdale, Florida during spring break where Penny and Bob were both celebrating an escape from classes and the weather of upstate New York. The two were married in Princeton in July 1968 immediately after their college graduation.
Penny and Bob lived in Colombia for two years with the Peace Corps, initiating a life-long love of travel, living abroad, learning foreign languages, and experiencing other cultures. Penny and Bob traveled to more than 80 countries during their years together, touched all seven continents and lived on three of them living not only in Colombia, but in the Netherlands as well in the early 1980's with their three children when Bob was transferred there for his job with Nike. During Penny's and Bob's travels, they rode camels and elephants, swam with dolphins, manta rays, and sharks, saw the Southern Cross, the Galapagos Islands, Machu Picchu, the pyramids of Egypt, the Taj Mahal, the early underground churches of Cappadocia, and countless other wonders.
After a brief post Peace Corps stint back in Penny's hometown of Princeton, New Jersey, the couple moved to Oregon in 1973, settling in Northeast Portland. Penny focused on raising their three children before she returned to graduate school at Lewis & Clark College obtaining her masters in psychology in 1992. After a short stint in private practice as a therapist, Penny joined the Life & Career Options (LCOP) program at Clackamas Community College where she taught until she retired in 2003. But her biggest impact may have been her informal "kitchen table" talks with so many of her neighbors, family, and friends. One of Penny's Lewis & Clark professors once summed up her communication skills as having a unique ability to explain difficult psychological issues in folksy and easily understandable words. Known as an astute active listener and advisor for people's problems and concerns, who just made people feel better, Penny would often carry on conversations with visitors at her home until the early hours of the mornings.
Penny was an active volunteer, leader, and patient advocate for many organizations involving pediatric cancer and terminal illness. Penny served as President of the Oregon chapter of Candlelighters for Children and a member of its national board in the 1980's. She was also involved with American Cancer Society and Camp Ukandu. Penny's interest and link to these organizations began with the diagnosis of her youngest daughter Sarah with an inoperable brain tumor in 1979. Through her personal drive, determination, and tenacity, Penny fought for cutting-edge treatment for Sarah for years through surgeries, radiation, and chemotherapy in hospitals in Oregon and California, causing Sarah to be a most unlikely, but fortunate long-term survivor of her condition. Navigating Penny's own experience with her family, helped her assist numerous other families going through their own battles with childhood illness and shine her very bright light broadly.
Picking up art later in life, Penny became an accomplished artist working in many different media, including painting, sketching, and sculpting. Influenced by images from her wide world travels, including the vibrant colors of the Hawaiian islands where the family had spent a good deal of time since being one of the first recipients of Oregon's Make-A-Wish wish grants in the form of a family trip there in the mid-1980's and the quiet solitude and spirituality of many other natural locales she had been from the Oregon coast to Portugal and China. She signed her works of art with her own distinctive "PPK" Asian artist chop that looks strikingly similar to a dragonfly as well.
Perhaps the only thing that was broader than her travels was Penny's knowledge of literature. She was a voracious reader (consuming primarily fiction–including all kinds of historical and period novels related to travel locations), a crossword master, and a fierce family word game competitor.
A memorial service will be held for Penny on Saturday, November 29th, at Saint Michael's & All Angels Episcopal Church, 1704 NE 43rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon 97213, starting at 1 p.m. Reception to follow.
In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in Penny's name to CureSearch, an organization focused on ending childhood cancer by driving innovative and accelerated research efforts at https://curesearch.org/ or CureSearch for Children's Cancer, PO Box 45781, Baltimore, MD 21297-5781.