Mary Schnackenberg Cattani

1944 - 2024

Mary Schnackenberg Cattani

Amherst, MA - Mary Schnackenberg Cattani passed away suddenly on December 1, 2024, in New Haven, Connecticut, as she and her husband, Eduardo Cattani, were returning to their home in Amherst, Massachusetts, from an extended stay in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Mary was born on March 2, 1944, to Walter Charles Schnackenberg and Doris Ione Strom Schnackenberg, in Tacoma, Washington, where she grew up on Wheeler Street in Parkland. She graduated from Franklin Pierce High School, where she made lifelong friends.

In 1962-63, Mary and her sister Ann spent a year in Paris, studying in the "Cours de civilisation française de la Sorbonne," a year which ignited her lifelong passion for France and for all things French: language, culture, music, art, literature, and fashion. After returning from the Sorbonne, she majored in French at Pacific Lutheran University, then received a Masters from Washington University in St. Louis, and later a PhD in French Literature from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

While studying for her Masters in St. Louis, Mary met Eduardo, a graduate student in Mathematics at Washington University. In 1973, after living for a year in New York City, they moved to Amherst, where Eduardo became a professor of Mathematics at the University of Massachusetts.

Mary's career spanned several interconnected phases, all of which reflected her lifelong interest in international education, and which gave her the opportunity to interact with students. She taught French in several of the colleges of the Five Colleges Consortium, including three years at Mount Holyoke College, where she was a beloved teacher. In 1988, after spending a sabbatical year with Eduardo in Germany and Argentina, Mary became the Executive Director of Scandinavian Seminar, an organization through which American students could study at Folk High Schools in Scandinavia. She traveled frequently to accompany the students to their various school destinations, and during some of these trips she was happily able to connect with some of her relatives in Norway. In the mid 1990's, Mary became the American liaison for the Center for University Programs Abroad (CUPA), a study abroad program based at the University of Paris. She found great joy assisting the students in the program and working with her wonderful colleagues in Paris.

After retiring from CUPA, Mary became active in the Association for World Education, an organization dedicated to the promotion of adult and sustainable education, and for several years she served as AWE's representative to the United Nations. More recently, she was an active board member of the Folk Education Association of America, an organization to which Mary brought her deep knowledge and love of the Folk School Movement.

Mary relished traveling and throughout her life visited many fascinating places. She was especially awed by Machu Picchu, Angkor Watt, and the Greek temples of Sicily. But undoubtedly her favorite places were the cedar cabin her father built at Priest Lake, Idaho, where she enjoyed swimming in the pristine lake and connecting with lifelong lake friends, and the home she and Eduardo shared in Amherst where she had the most fun creating an interior that reflected her love of color, her love of the changing seasons, and her unique artistic sense of style and design. Mary was supremely hospitable, and she was an inspired cook who loved to read, find, share, prepare and commiserate about recipes with friends and sisters.

Mary was the epitome of a people person. She treasured her friends in Amherst, Tacoma, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and, through Facebook, all over the world. And they, in turn, loved the energy and happiness that she brought to the world, her insatiable desire for learning, her love and appreciation of literature and art, her interest in new ideas, and her always open mind and heart. She was witty and funny, and could make the trees of Buenos Aires come to life while writing a blog discussing the spring fashion in the southern hemisphere.

In April, 2022, following a diagnosis of a form of leukemia, Mary received a bone marrow transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she was given excellent care and always warm attention. Her positive attitude and her valiant determination to keep living never faltered, and she was fully alive and on the go until the last moment of her life when she died suddenly in the midst of happily doing what she loved most: planning her next trip with Eduardo.

In addition to her husband, she is survived by her sisters, Ann Schnackenberg Grady, Dikka Schnackenberg Berven, and Gjertrud Schnackenberg; her sister-in-law Cristina Cattani, and her brother-in-law Keith Berven; as well as by nieces and nephews.