Eulogy for CATHERINE PATRICIA HEARN (1907-1997)
Delivered by Kathleen Bryce Niles at Most Holy Rosary Church Syracuse, New York
I met Kate Hearn nearly fourty years ago. I remember incredible steel wool hair swept up around a beautiful, serene face that was punctuated by bottomless blue eyes that cut right through to the heart of any matter. There was no place in her world for hemming and hawing, for indecision or waffling. She always knew where she was going and she always went right there.
There are not many things that I can tell you about Kate because she was truly an exceptional educator … a private person who worked with the lives of children, always remembering that with the young people in your charge, you must always be friendly but not a friend, in the usual sense. Kate was willing to give of herself but never to give herself to us. We didn’t always understand this reticence and her ability to establish appropriate distance. As adults, we can know that she had those unique abilities because she was, indeed, a consummate professional.
For me to tell you even a little about the strength of this remarkable woman, I have to tell you a little about me. I was a high school girl with one foot in childhood and the other in adolescence when I stumbled into the Guidance Office at Central Tech High School. I was well into a business program that would guarantee a lifetime of secretarial work. Angry and frustrated most of the time, I was able to find encouragement and peace in the time that Miss Hearn, as I knew her at that time, would spend working with me.
She believed in me and gave me the time and space to learn to believe in myself. I spent an extra year at the high school to pick up some academic courses, but more importantly, as I know now, to learn more from her. I earned a BA and MA in English … like Kate. I took a Masters in Psychology … like Kate. I took my first job with the Syracuse City School District … like Kate. And, like Kate, I went to work with children at Central Tech. Later, I completed the CAS in Educational Administration to be a school administrator.
She was my greatest fan when I did well and my sharpest critic when I did not. From her, I learned the meaning of the phrase, “the silence will be deafening.” It taught me some measure of humility and it made me listen for her voice calling down through the years when a decision of some consequence needed to be made.
Currently, I am in my 29th year of service to the children of Syracuse. There are few days that pass that I do not think of Kate Hearn. How different my life would have been without her!
Catherine Hearn never gave birth to children but she most assuredly could call hundreds, perhaps thousands, her own. I was just one of those children, and because of Kate, I was able to reach into the lives of other children to give them support, encouragement and hope. Each time I reached a child and changed what might have been to what could be, it was also the hand, the heart of Kate Hearn touching that child.
And, so it is, and will continue to be … that whoever felt the love and spirit of Kate will pass it on to all they touch. I am grateful to God for letting me be one of Kate’s children but remember I am only one … everywhere you look there are others doing her work, God’s work, in perpetuity. May her most beautiful soul rest in peace.
KBN
Class of ’61