KATHARINE T. COLEY, MA ’63

KATHARINE T. COLEY MA’63, an ardent conservationist and co-founder of The Connection, one of Connecticut’s most successful social-service agencies, died Aug. 19, 2013, at age 89. An alumna of Smith College, she began her career as a reporter and later a columnist for The Washington Times-Herald. She then moved to New York and worked for the United Nations in public relations for UNICEF, where she was instrumental in starting several UNICEF programs. In 1952, she moved to Connecticut with Wesleyan Professor Emeritus of English William Coley, her former husband. She received a master’s in psychology at Wesleyan for her research on Navajo tribal government and then taught anthropology at Middlesex Community College. After volunteering at Connecticut Valley Hospital, her experiences with young heroin addicts led to the founding of The Connection in 1972. A small initial program of counseling and support has become a statewide, multi-million dollar social service agency, on whose board she remained for 41 years. She was also one of the founders of The Independent Day School in Middlefield, Conn. A long and distinguished career of environmental activism followed, one that brought her to Washington to lobby Senators and Congressmen, to join with numerous Connecticut-based organizations as an environmental advocate, and to participate in the preservation of large swaths of open space in Middletown and elsewhere. She, along with others, spearheaded the preservation of the Wadsworth Mansion at Long Hill Estate, a Middletown landmark, and served on its Parkland Committee. She served on the Middletown Conservation Commission and the Steering Committee of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council. Survivors include two daughters.