Former head of YWCA dies at 85

B. Catherine Lotzenhiser, former head of the Spokane YWCA and an avid community volunteer, died July 22 at her home in Coupeville, Wash., of pancreatic cancer. She was 85.

She lived in Spokane for more than 20 years with her husband, George W. Lotzenhiser, dean emeritus of fine arts at Eastern Washington University and a retired rear admiral in the Naval Reserve, before retiring to Whidbey Island in 1986.

She became president of the board of directors of the YWCA of Spokane in 1980, serving two years in that post. During her tenure, she founded the Women of Achievement Luncheon – an annual event to recognize community leaders that remains the organization’s primary fundraiser. She was also involved in creating the YWCA’s Confidential Safe Shelter for victims of domestic violence.

She was president of the board of directors at St. Joseph Children’s Home, now St. Joseph Family Center, and was board member for the United Way in Spokane and on Whidbey Island, George Lotzenhiser said.

Catherine Lotzenhiser was born in Guilford, Mo., to Clifford and Nora Tuttle, and she moved to Tacoma with her parents at age 2. She graduated from Stadium High School and attended the University of Puget Sound.

During World War II, she became Tacoma’s first enlistee in the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service. A petty officer at the time, she met her husband, an enlisted man, while serving in Pasco, and they married in 1944.

“She outranked me then and it never changed,” George Lotzenhiser said. “Even when I made admiral she still outranked me.”

The family lived in California, Michigan, Arizona and Oregon before moving to Cheney in 1960.

The couple bred and showed Scottish terriers together, including Piper, their current pet. They started after she won a national contest to name a terrier as a teenager. She named him Ken, the Scottish name that means “to know.”

“She felt the Scottish terrier, every time it cocks its head that way, it seems to know,” George Lotzenhiser said.

Catherine Lotzenhiser had a flair for artistic decorating and a wonderful sense of humor, said Ellen Ferris of Spokane, also a former president of the YWCA board.

She is survived by son Jon Lotzenhiser of Walnut Creek, Calif., and a granddaughter, Sara Lotzenhiser of Park City, Utah. The couple’s other son, William Lotzenhiser, was killed in an auto accident in 1991.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 1 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church in Oak Harbor, Wash.