H. CATHERINE SKINNER

SKINNER--H. Catherine Wild. H. Catherine Wild Skinner January 25, 1931 - July 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's commitment to education and leadership as a working mother inspired and mentored countless others during a pivotal time in women's history. Born in Brooklyn, NY, Cathy attended Kew Forest School and Mount Holyoke College. She earned a master's at Harvard (via Radcliffe) her PhD at University of Adelaide in South Australia. Her pioneering research in Medical Geology at National Institutes of Health and Yale brought valuable knowledge to dentistry and orthopedics. She served as Head of Jonathan Edwards College at Yale, the first woman to serve a full term at any residential college at Yale. 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, predeceased her in 2019. In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to Yale's Brian J. and H. Catherine W. Skinner Postdoctoral Fellowship Fund. https://earth.yale.edu/donate