Catherine C. Strohmeyer

Catherine C. Strohmeyer, nee Catherine Lee Cowperthwait, age 82 of Watchung, NJ, passed away Friday, September 5, 2025. Catherine was a longtime resident of Watchung and the surrounding area. Born in Plainfield, she was raised in Watchung, and after living in Dunellen, where she raised her two children, Eric Scott and Leslie Anne, she returned to her childhood home.
She was a life-long member of the Mary E. Wilson Memorial Union Church where she taught Sunday School for a number of years. Catherine started her work-life as a secretary at Kemper Insurance, before joining the medical affairs department as a medical literature researcher at Sandoz, Inc. She also taught high school English, French, and History for fifteen years at a local private school, and prior to that she did substitute teaching in local public schools. When not teaching full time, she filled in as a secretarial replacement for Office Temporaries and taught part time adults Business English in the evening division of Katharine Gibbs School in Piscataway. She also worked part time as a tutor at the Huntington Learning Center in Bridgewater. She concluded her employment life as a tour guide for Duke Farms.
She was a graduate of Short Hills Country Day in Short Hills, NJ, The Gill School (Gill-St. Bernard School today), Bernardsville, Otterbein University, Westerville, Ohio, where she spent her junior year studying abroad at Strasbourg University, France, and attended a one-year college graduate course at Katharine Gibbs School of Business in Montclair, NJ. She received her NJ Teaching Certification through a Masters in Education program at Montclair State College in Montclair, NJ.

Catherine was a 42 year member of the Elizabeth Snyder-Continental Chapter of the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution). She was a past Chapter Regent and in 2008 she was a National DAR Contest Winner with her essay on Women's Career Issues. Catherine is a direct descendent of Colonel Joseph Cowperthwaite, Commander of the Light Brigade, known as the Quaker Blues who served and protected General George Washington during the American Revolutionary War. She was also a descendent of two signers of the Declaration of Independence, Sir Francis Lightfoot Lee and Patrick Henry Lee.
Catherine is survived by her son Eric Scott Strohmeyer, her daughter, Leslie Anne Strohmeyer and her husband Kevin Sheridan, her niece Catherine Lynn Cowperthwait Xenakis and her husband Stacy, her nephew William Levering Cowperthwait IV, and his wife Michelle and their children great niece Nicole and family, and great nephew Kenneth, and her nephew Richard Henry Cowperthwait and his wife Erika and their children, Great nieces, Sydney and Morgan.

A visitation will be held on Friday, September 12, 2025, from 4:00 to 8:00 PM at Higgins Home For Funerals, 752 Mountain Boulevard, Watchung, New Jersey. A funeral service will be held on Saturday, September 13, 2025, at 10:00 AM at Wilson Memorial Church, 7 Valley Road, Watchung, New Jersey. Interment will follow at Hillside Cemetery in Scotch Plains, New Jersey.