One of Cambridge’s most loyal daughters, Joan McCathie, was lauded recently as inspirational, generous and an insatiable local historian.
After Joan’s death last month, just weeks after her 83rd birthday, the outpouring of memories penned by her former students at Fraser High School began to appear.
Joan McCathie
“One of the great outcomes of an education can be finding a teacher who is so inspiring that you at once know where you want to go in life and your future is set,” wrote one, who went on to become a doctor. He rated her engaging teaching style almost as much as the interesting cars she drove.
Others pegged her as firm but fair, a true professional with a wonderful sense of humour and compassion, a great and well-respected leader.
Her younger sister Gaye Lorigan said that while they were very different women, they always loved, admired and supported one another. They were Cambridge girls through and through, born to David and Gwendoline McCathie who themselves were well known locally. Joan was born in the Alpha St house in which she lived all her life. She had wanted to end her days there, Gaye said, but it was not to be.
Cambridge Museum manager Elizabeth Harvey.
Her farewell service at Woodside Estate was led by Kay Gregory, a past pupil of hers. Also speaking was Cambridge Museum manager Elizabeth Harvey, who described Joan’s knowledge of the history of this area as “far deeper than mine will ever be”.
“Her passion for the local community and her insatiable curiosity about its history were infectious,” she said. “Whether she was delving into the newspaper archives at the museum or advocating for the preservation of the town’s heritage with the Historical Society, Joan’s commitment was limitless.”
Her meticulous indexing of the Waikato Independent, printed locally from 1904 to 1995, aids researchers today. Some of those pages reflected her own life – an early record shows her in 1946 as a flower girl at a Town Hall party. There is also reference to her mother ‘shocking’ the locals in early 1934 by wearing slacks in Victoria St; “It’s hard to imagine the fashion spreading to any extent”, stated the accompanying comment.
After Joan completed her schooling in Cambridge, she went to Auckland Teachers’ College. She taught at Hamilton Girls’ High and then at Hamilton Tech College which later became Fraser High School, completing 45 years before adding a further five as International Student director.
She remained active in Cambridge through extensive volunteering with the Cambridge Museum, Cambridge Tree Trust, Hospice Waikato and New Lives Animal Rescue, and was a generous donor.
Her fun side was remembered by many, particularly her passion for cars. She owned several memorable vehicles, including a 1960s Ford Futura coupe and a 1970s Valiant Charger.
That she was “a very styley lady–” according to the doctor she once taught – should come as no surprise. Joan’s father David McCathie owned a menswear shop in Victoria St, her sister Gaye is known for the two fashion stores she has run over the years … and, of course, their mum had a great eye for a pair of slacks.
Joan McCathie, in striped jersey, was always in the thick of the action when projects such as the development of Lake Te Koo Utu involved the Cambridge Tree Trust. Photo: Mary Anne Gill.
