H. Catherine W. Skinner

1931 - 2025

H. Catherine W. Skinner
Jan. 25, 1931 - Jul. 30, 2025
H. Catherine (Cathy) W. Skinner, PhD, noted mineralogist, educator and researcher at Yale University, passed away on July 30, 2025, in Southbury, CT. She was 94 years old.
Cathy was a pioneer in the field of Medical Geology. Her extensive work with phosphates formed the basis of a long career that produced breakthrough research and led to her leadership in public health-related science organizations. Along with her focus on educating biologists and biochemists working on collagen, bone and teeth about mineralogy and crystallography, Cathy was instrumental in bringing valuable knowledge to both dentistry and orthopedics.
Born in Brooklyn, NY, Cathy went to the Kew Forest School (Forest Hills Gardens, NY) then attended Mount Holyoke College (South Hadley, MA), becoming the first in her family to go to college. She earned a master's degree at Harvard (via Radcliffe, as was the arrangement in the 1950s), and completed her PhD at University of Adelaide in South Australia.
Upon returning to the U.S., Cathy worked at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD. In 1966, she transferred her work to Yale. She became a senior researcher in the department of Geology and Geophysics (now Earth and Planetary Sciences) as well as an affiliate in the department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation and the Peabody Museum, Her research on asbestos was a core inclusion in the publication of Asbestos and Other Fibrous Materials: Mineralogy, Crystal Chemistry and Health Effects.
She also served as Head of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale, the first woman to serve a full-term at any residential college at Yale. She volunteered her expertise and time to organizations such as the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, the New Haven YWCA and Miss Porter's School. She was elected as the first woman president in the 200-year history of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences. She also cofounded the Investor's Strategy Institute and created a professional women's group in New Haven that met monthly for more than 40 years.
Cathy was the mother of three daughters (Adrienne, Stephanie and Thalassa), grandmother of four (Catherine, Diane and Erica Scott, and Alexandra Gordon) and great-grandmother of Elijah and Henry Scott-Samber. Her husband, Brian J. Skinner, Eugene Higgins Professor of Geology and Geophysics at Yale, predeceased her in 2019.
Cathy's commitment to education and leadership as a working mother inspired and mentored countless others during a pivotal time in women's history. She lived an exemplary life filled with significant achievements and milestones. Her extended family, as well as worldwide friends and colleagues, honor her legacy with love and gratitude.
The Celebration of Life will be held in October in New Haven, CT. To locate service information or to leave an online condolence, please visit munsonloveterefuneralhome.com. In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to Yale's Brian J. and H. Catherine W. Skinner Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund. Find information on the Earth and Planetary Sciences site at https://earth.yale.edu/donate.