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Kaye Coleman, who co-founded the University of Utah's Women's Resource Center and brought Maya Angelou and Gloria Steinem to the campus in the era of the fight over the Equal Rights Amendment, has died.

Coleman, 83, died Friday in Salt Lake City. She recently had surgery but was otherwise healthy, said her daughter Jolie Coleman.

An Ogden native, Kaye Coleman returned to the U. in her late 30s after raising three children. She earned three degrees — bachelor's, master's and doctorate — in psychology from the university before taking over as director at the center established in 1972 to counsel female students. Coleman later left that post to direct the U.'s Office of Equal Opportunity.

Friends and family say she was a skilled negotiator with a light touch who hosted Angelou and other high-profile feminist speakers at the family's Salt Lake City home, where they quizzed her teenage children about their interests and career plans.

"She was a little understated. You didn't realize how much influence she had in a group," said longtime friend and Phoenix Institute founder Jinnah Kelson. "She was very subtle, very able to lead people to what they should be doing and help them to succeed in their jobs."

Coleman had an early model of a "strong, capable woman" in her mother — a single parent who worked for Ogden Mayor Harm Peery and the Ogden Country Club, her daughter said.

That upbringing instilled in her a sense that a good job was necessary to help women "attain their full self," Jolie Coleman added. "I think that's what fueled her."

Her university tenure was not untouched by controversy.

Coleman left the top post at the center she helped build before an unsuccessful 1991 lawsuit alleged that a succeeding director and fellow co-founder inappropriately touched staff members between 1986 and 1988. Then-U.S. District Judge David Winder dismissed the $250,000 civil lawsuit from Beverly Purrington, who said she and other employees at the center were recipients of repeated, unwanted touching from Shauna Adix.

Other U. administrators, including Coleman, also were named in the suit.

"I think she was sorry that it caused people to take sides," Jolie Coleman said, "and caused people to turn their energies away from what the resource center was really meant to be."

After retiring from the U., Kaye Coleman was an active member of the U.'s Alumni Association Emeritus Board, among other organizations. She also was on the governor's anti-discrimination advisory committee.

Kelson said she watched Coleman — a pilot, real estate agent and dispute resolution arbiter — methodically climb over roadblocks to help Utah women earn equal footing.

At the time, "the thinking was that the men did the work and the women stayed home and cooked the bread," Kelson said. "We weren't doing that. We were getting education and careers."

@anniebknox

aknox@sltrib.com Memorial services

Kaye Coleman is survived by her husband, a brother and three children. A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday at 11 a.m. at This Is The Place Heritage Park, Garden Place. In lieu of flowers, her family is asking for donations in her name to the following organizations: Utah Arthritis Foundation, Alzheimer's Foundation of America, Town Club Preservation, Neighborhood House and the University of Utah.