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Catharine A. Cathy' Macdonald November 8, 2015 DEL MAR Catharine A. Macdonald passed away at the age of sixty at Tri-City Hospital in Oceanside, CA, on November 8, 2015, due to complications of cancer. Cathy was born and raised in Del Mar, CA, graduating from San Dieguito High School and then going on to receive a B.A. in American Literature from the University of California, Santa Cruz. She then worked in various fields, most often in the Del Mar area. She eventually found a calling in the computer software field with various companies, and most recently, was the Senior Manager of Quality Assurance at a company based in Poway, CA.While working, she obtained an MBA degree from Capella University and went on to pursue a Ph.D. at Fielding University. Her dissertationall but completed when she passedinvolved a study of musical creativity in older individuals.Throughout her life, Cathy was known as intelligent (brilliant!), witty, empatheticas well as a lover of animals and a staunch supporter of animal rights.Catharine is survived by her brother, Christopher Macdonald of Livingston, MT; and another brother, Mark Keys of Vista, CA. She also is survived by numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. She will be greatly missed. A memorial is in the planning stages. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a donation to your local pet shelter in Cathy's name.
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5 Entries
Cathy was a wonderful supporter of me during my own PhD journey - Am so sorry to hear of her death.
Kate McAlpine
December 22, 2015
Cathy was my Manager at Mitchell1 at San Diego for almost 6 years. She was always standing up for what was right and I admired her immensely for her strength. We stayed in touch even after I moved out of California. She has always guided me in my career. I will never forget her support when my dad passed away.
Cathy was my mentor, friend and words can not describe how much she will be missed. I am just so sad by her passing but the only consolation is that she is not in pain anymore. RIP Cathy
Veena Nagaraj
November 26, 2015
On behalf of the blended Macdonald, Keys, Miller family, I thank the expressions of kindness from those who knew Cathy. Mike Fleshman, thank you for your detailed remembrances; you knew a Cathy we didn't always see--our perspective perhaps dimmed at times by
our familiatity. Cathy was a woman who exuded insight, compassion, humor, and hope. I cannot imagine life without her.
November 25, 2015
I got to know Cathy, and much of her family, through her cousin, Elise Miller. I was with Cathy on several occasions, and enjoyed her company. She will be missed. My sympathies to Mark and Chris, Elise and the rest of the family. I hope to see them all at the memorial service, as well as Cathy's kitty.
Kim Cox
November 24, 2015
I met Cathy over 40 years ago when we were both freshmen at Sonoma State College. Scary smart, wicked sense of humor, generous to a fault, we hit it right off.
We reconnected a few years later in Santa Cruz before we parted to pursue our destinys - she in southern California and me in New York City. Unlike a lot of old California friends, she and I stayed in touch and Cathy joined us in Brooklyn for a year or two in the early 1980s before returning to California to pursue her career in tech.
We mostly lost track of each other until the advent of the internet and social media some years back, and reconnected again. She came to visit me in Brooklyn in October 2012ien route to an academic conference upstate and got stranded by Hurricane Sandy. We had plenty of time to rekindle our friendship, and it was then that I learned about her mounting health problems. I visited her in California last year for a week to try to help her get situated in her new home, and hoped to visit again this past summer, but she went incommunicado and I wan't able to come. I learned later that her health had taken a turn for the worse, conditions that led, finally to her passing.
She left us too soon, and I will miss her terribly. In South Africa the expression for marking the passage of a "comrade" id "Hamba Kahle" or "travel well" to the next life. She would laugh at my "magical thinking" but Hamba Kahle, Cathy. Thank you for everything you've given me and everything you did to make this a better, more humane world.
Michael Fleshman
November 24, 2015
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