Denise Marie Brady (née Brown), 61, died on November 22, 2022, following a cardiopulmonary event. She is survived by her husband, James Lester Brady, her daughters Elisha Brady and Caitlin Brady, her son Christopher Brady, her sister Michelle Brown-Ramirez, and her aunt, Claudine Minchella. Denise was born in Fort Ord, California, on July 26, 1961, to parents Richard and Marie (née Minchella) Brown. During her life, she lived in Monterey, San Francisco, Saratoga, Santa Barbara, Ben Lomond, Milpitas, Campbell, Largo (Florida), Seminole (Florida), San Jose, and finally, Gilroy.

Denise graduated from Saratoga High School in 1979 and went on to study English at UC Santa Barbara where she graduated in 1984. During her freshman year at UCSB, Denise met her future husband, James.

After college, Denise worked for NASA Ames Research Center as a technical editor, turning, as she put it, "Scientist Speak into English" for scientific papers and articles prior to publication. She married James in August 1984 and left the professional workforce ahead of the birth of their second child in 1990.

The family moved to Florida in 1992. Soon after the birth of their third child, Denise began volunteering as an aide in the local school, thereby igniting her true passion for teaching.

After the family moved back to the Bay Area in 1996, Denise worked as a Special Needs aide at Redwood Middle School in Saratoga. In the spring of 1998, she made the leap to full-time teaching at St. Cyprian Catholic School while simultaneously enrolling at National University. She earned her Teaching Credential and Masters in Education over the next three years.

In her 25 years of teaching at St. Cyprian, St. Christopher, and St. Catherine's, Denise has touched the lives of thousands of children, their parents, and dozens of teachers. She made Social Studies a "touchy-feely" class with artifacts from fossilized dinosaur excrement to a Civil War pain bullet. At St. Catherine's she has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade science. She pushed through technology challenges to teach by Zoom through the COVID shutdown, creating remote learning material a year ahead of the textbook publisher. She was fiercely protective of and loyal to her classes and truly loved each of her students, taking a personal interest in their growth and development. Her junior high students were, as she termed them, "her people." As a result, many of her former students cite her as the reason they either grew up to become teachers themselves or had the courage to follow their chosen career.

Denise also had a special knack for making others feel seen and appreciated. Whether it was children who grew up feeling like she was "their other mother," adults who saw her as a valuable member of their support systems, or community members, her smile and enthusiasm was infectious. Services for were held school community were held at St. Catherine's, the family service will be 10am,Dec 23 at South Valley Community Church in Gilroy. In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations made in her name to either St. Catherine's School in Morgan Hill, or any of the organizations working to end diseases that have affected her family: The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, the American Cancer Society, the Parkinson's foundation, or the Alzheimer's Association.