Catherine Varley

Catherine Helen Varley of Omena, MI and Tucson, AZ was born in San Francisco but grew up in Flint, where she graduated from St. John Vianney High School before completing a B.A. in Journalism at The University of Detroit. She and husband Joe served in the U.S. Peace Corps in Guatemala from 1973-1976, then after returning briefly to work with migrants in Suttons Bay, MI, they embarked on a life overseas, working in the foreign service from 1978-1998. Moving every two to four years between Africa and Latin America with kids in tow, Cate embraced each new country as home, adopting culinary, linguistic, and cultural traditions into the fabric of the family and normalizing experiences that her children now appreciate as precious and rare: searching for pot shards in the Sahara, white water rafting on the Nile, trekking mountain gorillas, and bargaining for handicrafts in villages far off the tourist paths.

After retirement, Cate and Joe followed their daughters to Tucson to participate in the raising of grandchildren, and Cate applied her lived experiences and appetite for knowledge earning a master’s degree in Latin American Studies at The University of Arizona. Cate served every community she joined, foreign and domestic, with determination and dedication. She worked as a grant-writer for Non-governmental aid organizations in Africa and Latin America and for Munson Health in northern Michigan. After retirement, she worked long hours as a volunteer for organizations addressing critical needs of the environment, women and children, rural communities, and immigrants and asylum-seekers. Locally, she served Colibri Center for Human Rights and Casa Alitas of Tucson.

One of Cate’s many gifts was intuitiveness. She connected with those who knew her in a way that cut to the heart of what we valued most (grandchildren, nature, family, work). She remembered these details and became a confidante, mentor, intimate friend, or surrogate mother to her friends and extended family members. Her children, Anna, Maura, and John cherish “family” Thanksgivings and Christmases, when the leaves of the table would be exhausted to accommodate countless Peace Corps volunteers, graduate classmates, service members, or single USAID officers, all far from home but made to feel at home over Cate’s scrumptious, scratch dinners. She formed a network of meaningful friendships along her path, and she will be greatly missed by family and friends around the world.