CATHA RAMBUSCH

RAMBUSCH--Catha Jackson Grace. A founding director of two of the nation's archives, died April 18, 2024. She was at home with members of her family. Catha Jackson Grace Rambusch was born in Brooklyn January 4, 1937. She had three sisters, Margo Hartman, Cissie Sill and Maria Carroll. Catha attended Fox Hollow in Lenox, MA and Smith College. She spent a year in Winterthur's program for study in American Decorative Arts and received her Masters in American Studies from NYU. She married Viggo Bech Rambusch in 1959. They had five children, Kristin Von Thelen of Charlottesville, VA, Edwin and Martin Rambusch of Madison, NJ and Lucia Sophia Rambusch-Adam of Denver, CO. Catha and Viggo's daughter Karina died many years ago. There are eight grandchildren. Catha and her family were citizens of NYC and Tyringham, MA. Her great love was the gardens and the 200 year old farm house in the Berkshires. In the early 1970's she was asked by the New York Architectural League to develop a listing of New York's architects from the beginning and the locations of the deposits of their surviving drawings. This she did. She then was hired by a group of New York State architects to do the same for New York State. Within the year the National A.I.A. (American Institute of Architects) Headquarters in Washington, DC hired her to do the same for the Nation. She, as Director, opened an office and for eight years proceeded to build up COPAR (the Committee for the Preservation of Architectural Records). The archives grew so large that the Committee's computer was unequal to the task. It was decided in 1982 to merge the archive into HABS (Historic American Building Survey) at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. She was a founding member of UNESCO's ICAM (International Confederation of Architectural Museums) attending the initial meetings in Paris, Helsinki and Amsterdam. Catha Grace Rambusch received the "Public Service Award" from the Secretary of the Interior Donald Paul Hodel in Washington, September 13, 1988. The American Institute of Architects (AIA) awarded her their Silver Medal. She became the Director of the National Catalogue of Landscape Records at Wave Hill, NYC in 1989 until 2004. Catha was the archivist and historian of her husband's family firm, writing the history of the 125 year old firm. She had been asked in 1976 by Paul O'Dwyer, then head of the City Council of New York, to support the New York Archival Society when she first started her efforts - which she did. In 2023 she became President of that organization. Those who wish to celebrate Catha's life may, in lieu of flowers, send a contribution to the New York Archival Society at 31 Chambers Street, Room 305, New York, NY 10007. https:// newyorkarchivalsociety.org