Please share a memory of Edward to include in a keepsake book for family and friends.
A committed educator and lifelong patron of the arts, Edward S. McCatty passed away on June 14, 2025, in Keene, New Hampshire.
Born June 10, 1954, Ed grew up in Brooklyn, NY, where he attended Wingate High School, graduating in 1971. In 1975, Ed earned a bachelor’s degree in English and biology from Amherst College. He went on to receive a master’s degree from Yale Divinity School in 1979 and a master’s in literature from University College London in 2005.
After teaching for seven years at Brentwood School in Los Angeles, California, Ed returned to the East Coast in 1992 to join the faculty of Choate Rosemary Hall in Wallingford, Connecticut, where he would remain for 28 years. A literary enthusiast and logophile with high standards for his students, Ed was fully engaged in campus life, serving as dorm adviser, rowing coach, Adviser to Students of Color, and Faculty Adviser to the Judicial Committee. Ed was the consummate teacher, described by a faculty colleague as “both a teacher and a student: someone well equipped by virtue of his learning and his ability to communicate, to lead others to the discovery of, and excitement for, ideas.” Throughout his career at Choate, Ed received numerous awards from students and the administration for his teaching and contributions to the school community. As one student declared, “Mr. McCatty is passionate and devoted to bringing literature to life.”
Upon his retirement from Choate in 2020, Ed moved to Walpole, NH, where he remained an active member of the Amherst College Alumni Association and joined St. Michael’s Episcopal Church of Brattleboro, Vermont. In addition, he served on the board of the Brattleboro Museum and Art Center.
Ed cherished the many communities he lived in throughout his life and once proclaimed in a service at the Seymour St. John Chapel at Choate, “I am not a self-made man…having received loving gifts from God, and love and nurture from my family and from the communities in which I have been fortunate to live… And if I am not alone, neither are you.”
Ed is survived by a brother, Nico, of Brooklyn, NY, and numerous friends, colleagues, and former students whose lives were made better by his high standards, compassion, and grace.
A celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, September 6, 2025, at 11:00 am at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Brattleboro, Vermont.
The first thing I noticed about Eddie was his name: Edward Somerville McCatty III. A heavy lift for someone so filled with light. Freshman year, Eddie and I were on the second floor of James together. And on the same floor in Valentine sophomore year. Our friendship continued after graduation when we both were in Los Angeles. He eventually transferred from teaching at a “tony” LA private school to teaching at Choate, where he happily spent the rest of his professional life.
Eddie was incredibly handsome. I can never remember seeing him without his dazzling smile, save for the time I asked him and David Heim ’75 to pose for a photography class portrait. It showed Eddie at his most serious—not his natural state.
The summer before sophomore year, I was invited to his beloved Brooklyn and spent time with his mother, father, grandmother (“Little Mom”) and brother Nikki. They were an incredibly loving group and welcomed me warmly. Eddie’s mother was especially memorable: tall, dynamic and forceful. I never forgot the hospitality they extended to me. Eddie played the indulgent host and, since this was my first visit to New York City, took me to Coney Island, where we ate Nathan’s hot dogs.
Ed, as he preferred to be called later in life, was erudite, cultured and eloquent. I always enjoyed talking to him, because his enthusiasms were infectious and opened my world to new music, art and literature. It’s no surprise he spent his life as an academic.
I so looked forward to seeing him at our 50th Reunion and was saddened to learn, just a few days before, that he was not well enough to attend. I am not certain who was more disappointed, him or me. He was a beacon of joy in my life.
