Heather Trumbower

Heather Trumbower

1965 - 2024

Trailblazer, scientist, musician, dog whisperer, Heather Jan Trumbower died on May 1, 2024, in California. After a long struggle with depression and other debilitating mental health issues, she chose to take her own life. Born in 1965 in New York City, she was adopted as an infant and raised as an only child in New Jersey.

Heather liked to say that she grew up in “Pleasantville” in “the shadow of Bell Labs.” A geek and proud of it before that was a thing, she loved numbers so much that the first song she composed at four years old on her child-size piano was a song of numbers.  Skipping a grade in her early years, she went on to writing software at Bell labs at 16 – believing that was just what kids normally did. After graduating high school as class Salutatorian, she went off to Princeton on a full scholarship, and completed her BS at the University of California Santa Cruz, graduating with highest honors in Computer Science in 1991.

Recruited by Netscape, Heather helped develop the first ever internet browser just as the internet was opening up. Working as a trailblazer in a male dominated field, she was often the only woman in the room, but her gentle, understated nature, her collaborative spirit, her blazing intellect, and her relentless curiosity allowed her to succeed. Her mix of warmth, kindness and incisive analysis won the respect of her colleagues and opened doors for the women who followed in her footsteps.

In her late 20s, she began a characteristically systematic quest to find her biological family. This search sparked her curiosity about the burgeoning field of genetics and inspired her to earn a certificate in bioinformatics, just as it was coming into existence as a field of study – once again, a trailblazer. She was proud of working on the Human Genome project, which gave her “a front row seat” for scientific milestones, including foundational discoveries that rewrote the textbooks and revolutionized our understanding of human physiology. She played a key role in inputting the SARS-1 virus (the first Covid threat) into the genome browser. Entrepreneurs, thirsting for a huge financial windfall, raced to patent the human genome, but the academic team Heather belonged to beat them to the punch and published the human genome FREE to the public — to the benefit of all mankind. She was justly proud of the team’s success. Her heart was always on the side of working for the common good.

From then on, genetics remained central to her career. Co-author on 10 scientific publications, she was invited to deliver numerous community outreach lectures on genomics. At every level, from grade schoolers to colleagues, her dedication as a mentor — especially to women in the STEM fields — is an enduring part of Heather’s legacy.

In her quest to find her biological families, Heather’s expertise in scientific inquiry paid off. She not only found them, she navigated the awkward surprise of her unexpected reappearance with sensitivity and kindness.

She developed especially close and loving relationships with her sister, Mercury Ripley, brother, Sebastian Sassi, and uncle, Stephen Judson, who remained Heather’s sole California family for decades. Heather fondly encouraged Mercury’s daughters, Sara and Alyssa, from kindergarten to college.

In 2007, Heather’s enthusiasm for the potential of genomic science led her to join the genetics startup, Navigenics, where she became a key technical leader, masterminding the sample management for all genotypic data. She was then invited to join another genetic startup, Invitae, where her extraordinary drive and talent helped build the company into a global leader. By improving the accuracy and efficiency of genetic data processing, she ultimately enhanced the lives of many thousands of patients she never met. Throughout her career, Heather was valued for her ability to translate complex concepts into practical applications. She made the incomprehensible easy to grasp. Yet in the excitement of sharing ideas with like-minded genomic buffs, Heather sometimes spoke the language of Geek at warp speed, as streams of dazzling ideas flashed by like laser beams.

When she met and fell in love with the university professor, Julia “Jules” Balén, she found another voraciously eclectic reader who shared her thirst for knowledge about everything under the sun. Jules’s practical streak counterbalanced Heather’s creative flights of fancy. When they married, Heather’s family circle widened to include Jules’s son, Rain and sister, Rita. Life with Jules reinvigorated Heather’s love of music, which ranged from Beethoven to Freddy Mercury. They joined several choruses, both gay and straight, gathering many new friendships as they performed in Cologne, Germany, Sydney, Australia, and Carnegie Hall.  Heather also played the flute with exceptional skill at birthdays and memorials. One perfect April day, in her Uncle Stephen’s rambling garden, Heather took joy in letting her flute speak for her heart, as Rain married his sweetheart, Reiko. Even the birds stopped to listen. If there are certain days in every life when all is right with the world, this was such a day. Music was always Heather’s touchstone.

Music, art, travel, gardening, cooking, glamping, swimming, and loving up animals of all kinds – but especially dogs – brought her joy. In her final years, she turned vegetable gardening into a series of blissful scientific experiments, the muddier the better. Heather loved bringing family and friends together and cooking up a storm. Because her enthusiastic hospitality even extended to dogs, her dog-boarding business earned nothing but 5-star reviews on Rover. In everything she did, her generosity impulse never slept. She simply enjoyed giving.

Heather cared deeply about the pain and injustice she saw all around her. She felt the suffering of others, viscerally. The sensitivity that was such a gift to others proved to be an unbearable burden to her. In the end, perhaps she cared too much.

She is preceded in death by her adoptive parents, Robert and Doris Trumbower, her birth mother, Nathalie Judson, and her half-brother, Raphael Sassi. Heather brightened the lives of her extended and chosen families, including many cousins and close family friends who were blessed by her beautiful spirit. She is fondly remembered by innumerable friends and colleagues, including Patrice Reid, Lorretta Haggard & Colleen Gilmore, Julie Murphy, Renny Christopher, Carl Watts, and many others too numerous to mention. She lives forever in the hearts of her various families: her adoptive New Jersey clan, including Corrin and Terry Kovalcik, Duane and Annie Jacobsen, and Allison Grillo; her biological family, including Mercury, Sara, Alyssa, Sebastian, Stephen, and his husband, Andy; her “step” kids, Rain and Reiko; and her spouse, Jules Balén.

A memorial tribute to Heather’s life is being planned for later this year. If you would like to be invited to the memorial, please sign up using this link https://forms.gle/NgymkoNTmdsbd33T8

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in her name to your local no-kill animal shelter in honor of our beloved dog-whisperer, or to one of the two choruses she sang with: the Queer Chorus of San Francisco or the Channel Islands Choral Association.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Heather Trumbower, please visit our floral store.