Catherine Reiko KimJuly 15,1945 - September 29, 2019Catherine Reiko Kim was born on July 15,1945 in Honolulu, Hawaii to Herbert Masakatsu Hiroshige
And Mary Tsurue Hiroshige. Everyone called her "Cathy" . She was the third of four children Florence, Walter, and Dorothy.

Cathy spent her early years in Hawaii with her sister Dorothy running barefoot among the palm trees through fields of sugar cane and red dirt. Her father Herbert was an agricultural economist, and his job took his family back and forth from Hawaii to San Francisco, California. She always preferred the cool weather and shoe wearing fog to the tropics, and eventually decided to stay in San Fancisco.

In San Francisco she attended Aptos Middle School, where she was the president of her student body. She later attended both Lowell High School and graduated from Hilo High I'm Hawaii. Cathy was a bright student and a very talented artist. She Eventually went on to graduate with a Bachelors of Science at San Francisco State College University where she majored in Biology and minored in Art.

After getting waitlisted at Johns Hopkin's Graduate School for Medical Illustrating, she decided instead to try something very different and enrolled in business courses at Golden Gate University. It was one of the best things to happen to her. Here she met her soon to be husband John Kim. It was love at first sight. They went on their first date at Happy Boy Restaurant on Market St, and the rest was history. She would invite him over to her her little apartment in San Francisco where she always had tiny lemon drop candies waiting for him in a bowl on the coffee table. A few months later they were married.

Cathy then followed her husband to business school at Washington University, and there their only child Caroline was born in St. Louis Missouri. Cathy was a fierce and devoted mother. She was a whiz at balancing work and home life, and created a cozy, warm stable household for all who lived with her.

Her longing for cool foggy air and city life brought her back to San Francisco where she worked for many years as a Marketing Researcher for Del Monte Corporation and as an accountant for the State Bar of California. When she retired she took up birdwatching with a passion. She chronicled and drew the most detailed and elaborate pictures of local fauna and could identify just about any bird on the map.

The joy of her life came after retirement. Her grandchildren Jacob and Natalie were her world. Even before they could talk, Obachan (Japanese for Grandma) would bring a thick stack of cardboard books out to them and tirelessly read story after story to her grandkids. She babysat for them twice a week and even when she became weaker with age she never skipped a pick up from school or a weekly dinner at her home.

Cathy Kim was the most considerate, gentle , and giving soul a family could hope for. In her memory, her family will try to live up to her spirit of humility, kindness, and unconditional love .

She is survived by her husband John Kim , daughter Caroline Kress , her son-in-law Eric Kress and her grandchildren Natalie and Jacob Kress.