Member Emeritus

Bourbon Women would like to honor the memory of Rhonda Quick, whose family made a very generous donation to develop and support the Bourbon Women Education Foundation.

From her sister Regina Quick:

Many thanks to Bourbon Women Association bestowing this honor on my accomplished, brilliant, kind and unassuming sister.  Her full obituary may be found here, filled with many mentions of bourbon in individual remembrances that follow!

https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/tucson-az/rhonda-quick-8220482

As a first-generation college student and the daughter of a welder in the coal mines and a bookkeeper, the successful Quick sister was often asked how her parents raised a vascular surgeon and a lawyer. She always explained that her sister was a genetic mutant and was her only role model growing up in rural Alabama.

Rhonda chose to make her home and build her life in the Foothills of the Tucson Mountains, but began her bourbon education in Lexington, Kentucky.  As a surgical resident, vascular fellow, and then faculty member at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, she embraced all aspects of America’s Native Spirit.  She attended every Bourbon Women SIPosium and was an ambassador for both the organization and its founder until dying suddenly in her sleep on March 17, 2019 – less than 2 weeks from retirement from private practice.

She was not only a bourbon expert but also an expert at cross-stitch embroidery and Native American culture with eclectic tastes in music, art and travel. Rhonda was a brilliant, compassionate surgeon and a kind and gentle soul.

“All the past is not a diminishing road, but instead, a huge meadow which no winter ever quite touches, divided from them now by the narrow bottle-neck of the most recent decade of years.”  Faulker,  A Rose for Emily

“Memory believes before knowing remembers.”  – Faulkner, Light in August

Member Emeritus

Wendy Almasy, as Co-Founder of Steel Bending Spirits, LLC and Three Chord Bourbon, was one of a few pioneering females to create a Spirits Company.

Driven to create businesses that “do well by doing good,” Wendy spent a lifetime creating and supporting initiatives designed to make this world a better place. Read more soon.