Cozy Huggins passed away surrounded by the love of her family and her pets on August 5, 2023.
Cozy was born minutes before her identical twin, Holly, in Laguna Hills, California. Her parents, Ron and Laura moved with her, Holly and her older sister Danielle to Park City, Utah 4 weeks later. Cozy grew up in Park City riding bikes, going on scavenger hunts, having sleep overs and causing general merriment and adolescent chaos with the Ranch Place crew. It was an especially good time when Redstone was built and populated with stores as Cozy could often be found riding her bike down to Restone in the summertime to devour a Love it at Coldstone Creamery.
When it wasn’t the summertime, Cozy attended Park City Schools where she tolerated math and loved classes like history and peer tutoring. Throughout her time in Park City schools she would also send in numerous opinion articles to the Park Record, advocating for what she believed in. During the 2013-2014 school year, Cozy served as president of the Park City High School Gay Straight Alliance. She created the Sundance fundraiser and helped organize a protest to wear armbands during a visit by then Utah governor Gary Herbert. Cozy nominated the GSA for a national GLSEN GSA of the year award in the spring of 2014. The GSA won and Cozy was able to accept the award in New York City alongside fellow club members and the GSA advisor. Cozy would go on to attend Westminster College where she continued her advocacy for LGBTQ rights, she could be found joining many a protest or meeting for the causes she believed. Cozy was then the graduation speaker for the class of 2018, where she spoke about the power of the collective to make change. After Westminster, Cozy traveled to Fort Collins, Colorado to obtain her Masters Degree in Student Affairs in higher education. It was there that Cozy discovered her love of Dutch Bros, Bath and Body works and movie trips. It was also where her love for working with college students flourished as she was awarded the supervisor of the year award during her last year at CSU. Cozy would go on to hold positions in housing and residence life at Westminster College and the University of Utah. She loved supporting students through crisis and conflict and would often express that as being her favorite part of the job.
Cozy always did the “hard thing” and she always strived to be better. For example, while she struggled with alcoholism in her early twenties, she recently proudly celebrated 600 days of sobriety. Cozy was also not afraid to speak up and speak out to support students and causes she believed in. She also was the biggest Hugg of them all, she would often give her Trader Joe groceries to unhoused people as she left the store or go out of her way to help a friend in need. Cozy was welcomed into heaven by her Grandma’s Margaret Huggins and Maggie Baxted, her aunt Shelly Baxted, and her Grandpas Frank Baxted and Macon Huggins. She will be sorely missed by her mother Laura Huggins, her father Ron Huggins, her older sister Danielle Huggins and her identical twin, Holly Huggins, her grandma Jackie Baxted, cousins Chris & Marissa Auerbach and her many aunts and uncles. She will also be missed by the numerous friends she made in her 27 years of life.
In lieu of flowers we ask that you donate in Cozy’s memory to Encircle Utah to help support LGBTQ unhoused youth in Utah. https://encircletogether.org/give
A celebration of her incredible life will be on Sunday, August 13 at 4pm @ 357 W Vista Ridge Rd Kamas, UT 84036