Catherine Brooke McGraw

McGraw

Catherine Brooke McGraw

Catherine Brooke McGraw, adored mother, educator, and mentor to countless students, died of cancer in Amherst, Massachusetts on March 2. She was 55 years old.

Catherine was born on February 7, 1968, in Bethesda, Maryland, the first child of Barbara and John McGraw. She attended Walt Whitman High School and spent summers at Camp Alleghany. She earned her B.A. from Emory and an M.A. in Latin American Studies from Vanderbilt.

Until last year, Catherine was the Director of College Counseling at the Williston Northampton School in Easthampton, Massachusetts, where she had worked since 2015. Before that, she had worked at Mount Holyoke College from 2008, where she held positions including Associate Dean of Admissions. She was the Associate Dean of Students at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Georgia from 1999-2004, and the coordinator of Student Development at Carnegie Mellon from 1996-1999. She spent two years at the Mayan School, in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. There, she taught 300 students in ten sections when she was just 23 years old.

Catherine had a passion for education and heartily committed herself to school communities. She valued working with international students and finding them a way forward that they might not have been able to imagine. She helped students understand they were not stuck, but could always make changes, adjust, and recalibrate. She saw working at a boarding school as a lifestyle choice, not merely a job.

Catherine enjoyed creating traditions and participating in established ones. She loved her garden and making her surroundings beautiful. Maryland remained home, even as she lived elsewhere. She loved spending time at Bethany Beach, and outdoor activities such as walking her dogs and hiking. (She drew the line at camping.) Catherine's open manner and grace drew people to her. She liked to have fun and brought everyone around her along.

Above all, Catherine's greatest love was her three children, who were the joy and light of her life. As she said, "The most important career of all my careers is being a mom."

Catherine is survived by her children Jack, George, and Catie Spence; her parents John and Barbara McGraw; and her brother Adam (Eliza) McGraw as well as a devoted extended family and many loving friends.

A celebration of life will be held in Amherst at a later time. In lieu of flowers, donations in Catherine's name can be made to the Williston Northampton Fund.