Cathleen Victoria Sanders' Obituary
Cathleen Victoria Sanders, 78, passed away peacefully in Kailua, Hawaii, within her cherished artisan home, one she designed herself, where she raised three adoring children. A loving wife and mother, her roles as a mathematician, teacher, and architect exemplified a life of persistence, passion, and joy.
Growing up in the embrace of Kailua, Hawaii, during the 1940s and 50s, Cathi was raised in a dynamic environment that propelled her into a life led by curiosity and a profound appreciation for both the natural world and the man-made one. Her mother, Poni Watson, was a triumphant real estate tycoon and musical arts aficionado. Her father, Charles Watson, known by his family as Chuck, was a brilliant sculptor and President of the Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company, which played a significant role in shaping the 20th century’s built world of our islands.
As the sister of Kerry, Mark, and Wendy, Cathi came into her own alongside a lively litter of varying personalities. With an avid mind for learning, she achieved academic excellence at a young age during her high school years at Punahou School. After graduation, she went on to study architecture at the University of California Berkeley. She'd recall her time in the 1960s living on Telegraph Hill enthusiastically, where she enjoyed playing her guitar and singing folk songs in coffee shops with friends while enriching her life with young love and voyages overseas.
Cathi carried a kind, gentle, and adventurous spirit. She loved to travel, swim, and eat unique cuisine with a romantic air. When she wasn’t breathing in foreign places, letting her imagination fly like a kite above land and cityscapes vividly new to her, she’d find herself floating in her home waters of Oahu, reading novels embedded with tasty recipes about women adventuring through Europe.
She was always learning. Cathi was bestowed with a sharp mind and significant creative flair. She used these traits to delve into every interest she cared to pursue. She published textbooks and websites fusing the structure of math with the nuance of art. She designed cutting-edge curriculums for both the students enrolled in her E-School and for her educational stomping grounds of Punahou, where she taught for 38 years. Her dedication and ingenuity were recognized and celebrated, earning accolades such as the Presidential Award of Excellence in Mathematics and Science Teaching in 1998, a testament to her unparalleled contributions to education.
Cathi was always absorbing and elevating everything around her. She spent her free time in her adult life taking pictures of nature, exploring museums, enjoying folk songs and binding books. She’d pick up the trail of a new hobby and see it to the end: collecting uniquely shaped boxes to study how they would come together, writing daily for decades, biking beautiful trails along the East Coast, hiking the peaks of Hawaiʻi to collect moss and make terrariums. Cathi sparkled with exploration from the minute to the massive. Then, she’d cuddle up with her beloved family. Laughing openly to the shenanigans of Monty Python and Mr. Bean or tearfully smiling at romantic comedies featuring Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts, all while teaching her children how to live in savory satisfaction with wide eyes and wonder.
A radiant light of femininity, a whip smart woman with a master’s degree, Cathi will forever live on in the whispers of the Koʻolau winds. A discrete innovator, we will never forget her. Her fascination for the material world and all the glorious math that makes it work will continue to inspire the legacy she leaves behind. She is survived by her loving children, Brian Sanders, Riley Sanders-Lee, and Julia Sanders, and her grandchildren, Kenzie, Lilou, and Suede Sanders-Lee, who already display their inheritance of her profound mind and playful spirit.
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