Submitted by the daughters of the late Katchen Coley. The City recently purchased open space in Maromas in her memory.
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/07/full-house-for-dedication-of-katchen.html
From all of the Staff of the Insider, we express our deepest sympathy.
We thank you for your friendship to her and remember she wants you to enjoy life but keep up the fight.
Below we copy her more official accomplishments and at the end highlight two wonderful tributes to her activism in social and environmental causes.
Katharine Truman Smith Coley, 89, died on August 19, 2013 of pancreatic cancer at her Middletown, Connecticut home, surrounded by friends and family during her last few months. Coley was an ardent conservationist, co-founder of The Connection, one of Connecticut’s most successful social-service agencies, and the former wife of William Coley, Wesleyan University Professor Emeritus in English. Kätchen, as she was known, was also the mother of daughters Phyllis (Lissy) Dewing Coley, Professor of Biology, University of Utah and Katharine (Kitty) Lancaster Coley, Geologist and Naturalist, Austin Texas.
Coley’s father, Colonel Truman Smith, was a distinguished and lifelong military officer, a decorated veteran of WWI, and later a military attaché to Germany in the years leading up to World War II. His wife, Katharine (Kay) Alling Hollister Smith was both an active partner and confidant throughout their marriage, and a distinguished and intelligent woman in her own right.
Kätchen was born on May 15, 1924, in New York, where her mother had returned from Germany after the Smith’s first posting there. Kätchen was educated in her early life at U.S Army public schools during her parent’s peripatetic stationing in America between the wars.
In 1935, the Smith family moved back to Berlin, where Kätchen was educated privately, and at German and Swiss schools. Her father’s significant role in the appraisal of Germany’s intentions and capabilities ended at the beginning of hostilities in 1939, when he was assigned to head German Intelligence in Washington DC. There, Kätchen attended The Master’s School in Dobb’s Ferry, New York, and then Smith College, where she graduated in 1944. Click to read more:
http://www.middletowninsider.com/2013/07/full-house-for-dedication-of-katchen.html
From all of the Staff of the Insider, we express our deepest sympathy.
It is with
unbearable sadness that Lissy and Kitty announce the death of their
amazing mother, Kätchen. She always gave us unconditional love, fiercely
loyal support, and of course a good dose of advice as well. We take
enormous pride in her accomplishments, always motivated by a desire to
make the world a better place, while caring for each person, especially
those less fortunate. Her energy, dedication, dignity, kindness and
strength have been a force of nature and have touched all of us, none
more than her daughters. As she is fond of saying, ‘she made us’, and it
is true. Her love, influence and inspiration have been a guiding
strength and will be with us forever. We only hope we can be small chips
off the old block. We will miss her immensely.
We thank you for your friendship to her and remember she wants you to enjoy life but keep up the fight.
Below we copy her more official accomplishments and at the end highlight two wonderful tributes to her activism in social and environmental causes.
Katharine Truman Smith Coley, 89, died on August 19, 2013 of pancreatic cancer at her Middletown, Connecticut home, surrounded by friends and family during her last few months. Coley was an ardent conservationist, co-founder of The Connection, one of Connecticut’s most successful social-service agencies, and the former wife of William Coley, Wesleyan University Professor Emeritus in English. Kätchen, as she was known, was also the mother of daughters Phyllis (Lissy) Dewing Coley, Professor of Biology, University of Utah and Katharine (Kitty) Lancaster Coley, Geologist and Naturalist, Austin Texas.
Coley’s father, Colonel Truman Smith, was a distinguished and lifelong military officer, a decorated veteran of WWI, and later a military attaché to Germany in the years leading up to World War II. His wife, Katharine (Kay) Alling Hollister Smith was both an active partner and confidant throughout their marriage, and a distinguished and intelligent woman in her own right.
Kätchen was born on May 15, 1924, in New York, where her mother had returned from Germany after the Smith’s first posting there. Kätchen was educated in her early life at U.S Army public schools during her parent’s peripatetic stationing in America between the wars.
In 1935, the Smith family moved back to Berlin, where Kätchen was educated privately, and at German and Swiss schools. Her father’s significant role in the appraisal of Germany’s intentions and capabilities ended at the beginning of hostilities in 1939, when he was assigned to head German Intelligence in Washington DC. There, Kätchen attended The Master’s School in Dobb’s Ferry, New York, and then Smith College, where she graduated in 1944. Click to read more:
