Catherine H. Chase Peters

The lovely scent of lilacs and pitter patter on the roof greets the morning as I write this from a special place near the 45th parallel where, “it never rains.” That is one of our family mottos which Cici has always fully embraced. Throughout her life, she been known as one whose drum beats to a different tune than that of others. She epitomizes the ideals of waking up to rain only to suggest “let’s go find the sun”. Five minutes later, we would be in the car driving to the sun and living life in the way that she saw it, with positivity, a questioning mind, love and a proactively can-do attitude. It is with great sadness that I must share the loss to the world of my mother, Cici, Catherine Harrington Chase Peters. She has been a unique daughter, a sister, a cousin, a friend, a wife, a mother, an aunt, a grandmother, a tapestry weaver, a Professor, a Teacher, a Vice President of USMDC, an organizer, a planner, a person who always gave everything of herself to others. In her own thinking, she related best with and was loved most by children. She was always positive and caring and lived life as a bit of a Peter Pan in that she spoke to the hearts of children and to those who were eternally young at heart. While her father was an air bomber, navigator in WWII, Cici was born on August 7, 1945 in Houston Texas to Catherine Ross Compton Chase (Kenny) originally of Washington, DC and to Sherret Spaulding Chase (Sherry), originally of Radnor, Pennsylvania. Cici enjoyed telling people that she was born between the dates of the dropping of the Atomic bomb in Hiroshima (the 6th) and in Nagasaki (the 9th). Sherry, her father, following WWII, earned his PhD and then worked as a geneticist, botanist, and plant breeder specializing in maize (corn). Cici and her siblings and daughter spent much of their teenage years working in Dr. Chase’s hybrid cornfields as he endeavored to create more resilient strains of corn (to pests, disease, draught…) through cross breeding research. He, through his work, was an important part of the Green Revolution (expanding on agricultural production capacity to benefit the world and its people). He shared that it is important to look, see, explore, and learn. As a result, Cici grew up to be a person who loved learning and always encouraged others to ask, “why?” After leaving Houston, Cici grew up in Ames, Iowa and in Sycamore, Illinois. She is the first of five children for her parents with the names of Cici (Catherine Harrington Chase), Helen, Sherret, Compy (Wilson Compton), and Alice. Like her mother, Kenny, Cici was a glue for the family and for friends in that she was always finding ways to bring family and friends together. She especially adored adventures with her nieces and nephews when they would come to visit her or she would go to take care of them during times when their parents were traveling or needed a break. Cici earned her Bachelor’s degree in art from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, Iowa and her Master’s in Fine Arts with a focus on tapestry weaving from RIT, the Rochester Institute of Technology in Rochester, New York. Following her Master’s degree, she worked as an art professor at Georgia University in Atlanta, and was then the head of school and cofounder of the Peachtree Alternative School in Atlanta, Georgia. After three years in Atlanta, she and her daughter, Tisha, moved back to live in her grandmother’s home, “Lonnie’s House,” on the side of Ticeteneyke Mountain, Ashokan, of the Catskill Mountains in New York where, with the help of her mother and daughter, she opened and ran an art store in Woodstock, NY’s Tinker Square, (owned by Ilene and Jerry Connelly), called Fiber Forms & Pots. It was an exclusive shop filled with her own creations and with the work of many renowned artists around the United States creating a center for top examples of tapestry, clothing, ceramics, hand blown glass, woodwork, and jewelry. Tinker Square was filled with other shops including Axel’s jewelry store, Ilene’s Clothing shop, a sports shop, a clothing design and seamstress shop, a pastry shop, and a stained glass shop - whose owners (and their children – including Jennifer and Tiffanie – both close to Tisha) all , together, formed a tightly knit community of friends. Tinker Square was just across the street from The Joyous Lake, an important center of Music for the region at which Cici (and Tisha) spent time with friends including the owners, Ron and Valma (and their daughter, Three). Cici’s third husband, Morty (deceased), was the sound man at the Joyous Lake and there they spent wonderful years celebrating and promoting the arts. At 32, Cici met her soul mate, the man who would become her husband for life, Jeffrey. At the moment of their meeting, he stated, “I have an eye for beautiful things and both this store and you are beautiful.” For her, it was love at first site. It took her four years to teach him the existence of and value of unconditional love. Once a unit, they both worked as a team to unfold his life’s work with “The US/Mexican Development Company” to uplift and to bring direct foreign investment funding to Mexico. Cici has been preceded by her fourth husband, Jeffrey Blair Peters who passed away on November 19, 2019 after 37 years together. Theirs was a great love of a lifetime. She was as a balloon to his stable approach to life and he enjoyed sharing with others how he was lucky to be the one that held the string attaching Cici to earth. Another descriptor they both enjoyed was that Jeffrey was the moon to Cici’s sun. She had had four husbands, the first three were Stephen Michael Jepson, ceramicist and father to her one child, Tisha Elizabeth, Scott Gilliam (wood carver), and Morton NMI Schiff (Physicist and sound man). Following Jeffrey’s death, Tisha helped Cici to move back from their home, in Mexico, to Washington, DC and Maryland. Cici and Tisha have spent the last five years walking 4-5 days a week together, reading, playing games, singing songs, receiving visits from friends and family, and making daily calls to loved ones while out along their regular on-foot excursions. It has been a wonderful time for mother and daughter to re-bond and for those who visited either in person or on the phone to spend special time, important togetherness, as Cici has made the transition feeling supported and loved by many to whom she had given so much during her lifetime. She has been so very grateful to all who made the special effort to connect with her recently and over her lifetime. Taking the nuclear family forward is her daughter, Tisha Elizabeth, and her three grandchildren, Etienne Victoria Fang, Harrison Blair Fang, and Chase Arianna Fang. They remember their Mother/Grandmother with love and gratitude for the time shared with her, for her example as a positive force of nature, and for the memories of wonderful adventures together.

Catherine H. Chase Peters

August 7, 1945 - September 9, 2024