Allison Cate Hartman

1931 - 2019

Alison Cate Hartman, a lifelong Chicagoan and Hyde Park fixture known in her long and varied career as a pioneering auto mechanic and later as a lawyer and outspoken community activist, passed away on November 13, her 88th birthday, due to complications after a cardiac arrest.

Born in 1931 to parents James Lea Cate, a professor of medieval history at the University of Chicago, and Frances Cohn Cate, she attended the Laboratory School, and later, from 1947 to 1951, the University of Chicago. Over the next decade, she developed an interest in automotive mechanics and sports-car racing, building a Formula Jr. race car with her first husband, George Clowes, and immersing herself in the racing community (ironically, she had an aversion to driving and didn't have a license for the last 60 years of her life). After that marriage ended, she continued racing with her second husband, James Hartman, competing on the SCCA circuit until his untimely death in 1966 in a racing accident at Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.

In 1964, she and Hartman opened Hyde Park Auto Service, which she continued to run on her own - one of the first women in Chicago to do so - after his death, until 1996. In the 1970's and 80's, she shifted her focus to motorcycle racing, participating in dirt-track competitions around the country with her partner John Millington. Beyond her automotive interests, she was a strong advocate for self-defense, earning a black belt in Hakkoryu Jiujitsu in 1988, and was an accomplished bench-rest target rifle-shooter, winning competitions well into her 80's.

After closing her shop, she went back to school, earning a degree in Criminal Justice from Chicago State University and, eventually, a JD and a Masters at Law degree from John Marshall Law School. She passed the bar in 2006 at age 75, among the oldest in Illinois history to do so, after which she practiced elder and real-estate law until her death. During this time, she was also involved in rehabbing and restoring several buildings on Chicago's south side, along with her son, James Russell Clowes, who died in June, 2019.

An active force in the Hyde Park community, she was a co-founder of Power for Women, a self- defense training program; the president of the board for DARE, an organization advocating for the rights of the disabled and elderly; a founding member of the Hyde Park Village; a commissioner of the S.S.A. working to enhance services for the elderly in Hyde Park; the president of OWL (the Older Women's League); a founder of the Coalition for Equitable Community Development; and a long-term board member of the Hyde Park–Kenwood Community Conference-among many other volunteer positions.

She is survived by her husband and partner of 48 years, John Millington; her son, Daniel Clowes, daughter-in-law, Erika Clowes, and grandson, Charles Clowes, of Oakland, California; and her brother, James L. Cate, Jr. of Australia; as well as by her beloved students and "adopted" children, Julie Orlinsky-Morgan of Chicago and Jesse Sensibar of Flagstaff, Arizona. A memorial service will be held in the Spring of 2020.