Kathryn Wierman Hayes

1959 - 2024

Kathryn Wierman Hayes of Kensington, MD, a mentor to scores of young adults and new immigrants who was deeply devoted to democracy and this country's founding documents, died peacefully at Sibley Hospital in Washington, DC on December 15, 2024. She was 65.

Ms. Hayes was born March 29, 1959 at Shadyside Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, the same hospital where her father and sister Amy were born. The first child of a Presbyterian minister and a nurse, Ms. Hayes was born on Easter Sunday, "which was a big deal," said her sister Beth Wierman.

When she was in 4th grade, the family moved to Wexford, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh, where Ms. Hayes, an honors student, lived until she graduated from North Allegheny High School in 1977. She spent a foundational summer working at Yellowstone National Park during college, graduated from Emory University in Atlanta in 1981 with degrees in political science and history and began canvassing for Clean Water Action, a job that her sister Beth said helped her find her purpose.

Her career took her to Booz Allen Hamilton, where she worked to protect the water and the air through Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Defense environmental programs, and where she met her best friend, Amy Salfi, and her future husband, Douglas, whom she married in 1998. While working full-time at Booz Allen, Ms. Hayes attended law school at night at American University, earning her JD in 1992 and passing the bar exam. She left the company decades later as a senior associate.

Ms. Hayes cared deeply about people. At Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church, she was a devoted volunteer for the Angel Gift Tree. She was an eager mentor to new immigrants as part of the Bethesda library's English Conversation Club, where she loved to learn about the stories and cultures of the area's newest residents. In her final years, as she employed caregivers who were mostly immigrants, she enjoyed learning their stories and gaining expertise about numerous African countries.

Ms. Hayes had strong opinions and wanted everything just-so. At The Original Pancake House in Bethesda, she would order real maple syrup, no matter the upcharge. Thanks to her aunt, Hannah Lambert-Reefer still asks for real maple syrup at diners, where the choice is mostly Log Cabin or nothing.

And then there was Ms. Hayes's love of government, policy, and history. "She loved living in the DC area," her sister Beth remarked. "God knows she loved democracy; to Kathryn, there's nothing to get you teary-eyed like the Declaration of Independence." In 2006, Ms. Hayes founded a July 4th annual reading of the Declaration on Middleton Lane in Bethesda that helps bring together neighbors each year and has become a cherished tradition shared with a generation of children who grew up reading the document out loud every year; dozens of foreign exchange students; immigrants from her English Conversation Club; and other communities to which the tradition has spread via residents of "The Lane." Ms. Hayes was honored for her role as founder in 2023, when more than two dozen people attended, including a large group from other parts of East Bethesda, MD.

Ms. Hayes was deeply devoted to and protective of her two small rescue dogs, Midge and Tippett.

Ms. Hayes is survived by her husband Douglas; sisters Beth Wierman and Amy Buchwald; niece and nephew Hannah Lambert-Reefer and M. Parke Lambert; dogs Midge and Tippet; and dozens of friends and loved ones whose lives she enriched with her wisdom, brilliance, and love.

A memorial service will be held on January 13, 2025 at 3 p.m. at Bradley Hills Presbyterian Church in Bethesda, MD.