About Catherine
Words That Define Catherine
As described by her daughter, Dr Sylvia Hall Andrews:
There are three utterances that, together, deftly paint a picture of Catherine Edith Hall (Milligan). One is an exclamation by the woman herself, in response to her son-in-law’s complaint that he was bored: “Bored? How can you be bored, man, when you have a mind?!” The second is a remembrance of her at her funeral, by one of her teacher colleagues from Akwesasne: “People have walls around them to keep others out. But Cathy would just climb over those walls.” The third is another statement from her funeral, by one of her former students, to her daughter: “Your mother changed my life.”
Early Curiosity & Determination
Cathy was intensely curious and keenly intelligent. She left the home farm on Prince Edward Island at the age of fifteen to attend high school in town, where girls were expected to excel only at home economics and secretarial studies. When one of her teachers suggested that she should apply for a university scholarship in science, she did: she applied for one scholarship at one university, and won it. She found herself enrolled in first-year university physics, biology, and chemistry classes at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick, where the fact that she had never studied higher-level science proved not to impede her success.
She played hockey throughout her university years, where she was known on the rink as “Pocket Rocket”, after the great Rocket Richard.
Academic Excellence
A Bachelor’s degree led to a Master’s degree, which led to a PhD. Cathy graduated summa cum laude from McGill University with a doctorate in organic chemistry. When she and her husband both found employment at an industry laboratory, she was paid the same salary as her husband, a rarity in those days.
Devoted Motherhood & Community Life
Motherhood took Cathy away from paid employment for over a decade. She grew a vegetable garden, sewed her children’s clothes, sat on parent-teacher associations, took the class photos, made bread and cookies, and every birthday cake from scratch. The kitchen candy drawer – strictly off-limits until after supper – was the envy of the neighbourhood kids. She also served on several committees, eschewing the University Women’s Club for the Chemical Institute of Canada Committee and the Science Fair Committee. Her children attended the nearby French-language Catholic school, and she was a driving force in seeing French Immersion implemented at the local public school.
Finding Her True Calling in Teaching
When her kids were old enough to begin attending high school, she began to pick up work as a substitute teacher for high school science classes, a job for which no teaching degree was required. When the Akwesasne Mohawk Board of Education began to call her up for shifts at the elementary school, she found her true calling and greatest passion: inspiring young children a thirst for knowledge and a love of education. She embraced the Mohawk culture and its traditions, making lifelong friends among her colleagues. She instituted a program that matched students with an elder at the retirement home next door to the school, a program that served the dual purpose of engaging the elders with the younger generation and teaching the children about their history. When she retired from teaching, she was presented with a quilt whose patches were inscribed with remembrances and good wishes and farewells from fellow teachers and former students.
Leadership in Science Fairs
As a member and oftentimes Chair of the Cornwall Science Fair committee, Cathy ran a tight ship and oversaw all facets of the endeavour, like the strong leader she was. She ran the science quiz, kept the judges on their toes, and ensured that the quality of her own children’s projects was enough to send them to the national fair time and time again. She coached her Akwesasne students on project development, and, under her tutelage, Akwesasne sent qualifying projects to the American national fair for the first time ever – and continued to send students for years afterwards. She had her local committee bid for host of the national science fair, won it, and chaired the grand enterprise. Cathy’s community involvement and endless drive led her to win Cornwall’s Citizen of the Year award in the late 90s.
A Life Remembered
“Mrs Hall”, “Aunt Catherine”, and “Cathy”. These were the names she was called by her students and her children’s friends, her nieces and nephews, her friends. People knew Mrs Hall, Aunt Catherine, and Cathy for her lack of pretense, her love of young children, her fondness for teasing, her ready laugh, and her enthusiasm for having fun. If any eyes could be described as twinkling, it would be the sky-blue eyes of Cathy Hall.
She was also “Mum”, and as such, she was eternally kind, ever inspiring, steadfastly encouraging, and uncompromisingly honest.
She had no equal, and the world is a lesser place without her.