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To: The Campus Community

From: Joan Hinde Stewart

I am writing with deep sadness to inform you that Katharine Eckman ’09 died last night following a brief battle with cancer. Kat was diagnosed with acute leukemia just three weeks ago. Countless friends on campus followed Kat’s progress through regular updates from her remarkable family on the Web site www.carepages.com/carepages/KatharineEckman.

Kat was a psychology major at Hamilton. She was a hard-working, conscientious student whose senior thesis focused on how preschoolers understand deception and lying. Her professors knew her as a vibrant, warm, fun-loving young woman whose constant smile and infectious laugh drew people to her. One faculty member described Kat as “traveling sunshine.”

Kat loved animals and she and some of her many close friends volunteered at Spring Care Farms. On campus, she was a member of the Judicial Board because she felt students are “obligated to take part in establishing an environment that promotes personal growth and celebrates learning.” Her love of trivia made her a regular participant at Trivia Night, at which she was her team’s expert on presidents. Kat’s death is a terrible loss for her family, our college and her many friends.

We will celebrate Kat’s life and contributions to our community in a memorial service that will be announced in the coming weeks. Please contact Chaplain Jeff McArn if you would like to assist in planning that service. In the meantime, you may wish to share your memories of Kat with her family.

J.H.S.

--
Joan Hinde Stewart
President
Hamilton College

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