Oneonta – Our beloved Cynthia Jane "Cindy" Klink passed away peacefully at Bassett Memorial Hospital on October 23, 2025 after a courageous battle with lung cancer. She was 60 years old. With intelligence, kindness, and humor, Cindy brought an extra ray of sunshine into the lives of all who knew her. From 2017 to 2020, Oneontans would regularly see her walking her crippled American Staffordshire, Leia, through Wilbur Park in a dog stroller. Occasionally, someone would ask "Why?" But local dog lovers stopped her to say she was their hero. Leia agreed and lived an extra two years in that condition to make the point. This compassion was essential to Cindy's core, as her students at Hartwick and SUNY Oneonta can attest.

Cindy loved car camping (but not backpacking!) with her husband in the California and Colorado Plateau deserts, the Adirondacks, and western National Parks. She overcame several difficult challenges in life with an inner strength that helped her regain her footing time after time. Sadly, this last challenge was more than her body could bear, though she remained stalwart and funny to the end.

Cindy moved to Oneonta from California in 2000 with her husband, Brian D. Haley, who had joined the faculty in Anthropology at SUNY Oneonta that year. She began teaching anthropology classes at Hartwick College in 2002 and at SUNY Oneonta in 2004, contributing in Women and Gender Studies and Sustainability Studies, as well. She was an active union member in UUP where she advocated for adjunct faculty.

An exceptional teacher-scholar, Cindy drew students to anthropology with her intelligence, enthusiasm, and sense of fun, inspiring many to continue their studies beyond the bachelor's degree. As a result, SUNY Oneonta awarded her its Siphiwe Hlatswayo Award for Outstanding Part-Time Faculty in 2013, and in 2014 she was the first SUNY Oneonta faculty member to receive the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Adjunct Teaching. For her efforts on behalf of adjunct faculty, UUP awarded Cindy its Samuel Fayez Award in 2018. Among Cindy's enduring local accomplishments is the creation and direction of the Pine Lake Archaeological Field School, the longest running instructional collaboration between Hartwick College and SUNY Oneonta. Besides recovering local prehistory, the field school trains archaeology students and hosts tours for local school children since 2003.

Cynthia Jane Klink was born August 31, 1965 in Hartford, Wisconsin to Lester W. and Betty Jane (Dautermann) Klink. She grew up in nearby Rubicon on the family dairy farm with eight older siblings. There she developed a love for the outdoors, a strong work ethic, and an appreciation for the value of humor. Her childhood thrills included "cow skiing" through the muck of a pasture by holding on to a cow's tail and urging it to run. Cindy attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukie, earning bachelor's degrees in anthropology and geology while gaining a taste for fieldwork in both subjects. She continued studies in anthropology at the University of Maine, before entering the PhD program at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where she specialized in Andean archaeology under Mark Aldenderfer. At Santa Barbara, she met and married her husband Brian in 1995. From 1996 to 1999, Cindy directed the Proyecto Arcaico del Altiplano archaeological project, exploring early human settlement in the Puno region of southern highland Peru. Following that, she collaborated with Brian Bauer and others in studies of the archaeology of the Cuzco Valley.

Cindy is survived by her husband, Brian and their third dog, Layla; sisters Jeanne Hagan, Mary Klink-Giesen (Jim Giesen), Anne Mussatti (Dale), Kathy Klink (Steve Winkelman), and Alice Klink; brothers, Jim Klink (Barbara) and John Klink; sister-in-law, Ann Haley (Paul Loop), and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by her parents and sister, Judy Lloyd (Andy).

In lieu of flowers, please donate to your favorite dog shelter.

Arrangements are entrusted with Lewis, Hurley & Pietrobono Funeral Home, 51 Dietz St., Oneonta, NY; www.lhpfuneralhome.com