Catherine Cook Robertson

Surrounded by her family, Catherine Cook Robertson passed peacefully on November 3, 2023, 19 days shy of her 96th birthday.  

 Born in Ottawa, Ontario, to Ethel Beatrice and Walter Samuel Cook on November 22, 1927, Catherine’s razor wit, flashing blue eyes, and quick smile went with her everywhere. She was in the first graduating class of Carleton College in Ottawa, majoring in Economics.  With Catherine’s command of history, literature, and facts, her first job was with the Department of External Affairs in the Canadian Parliament which led her to a position with the Canadian Film Board and eventually to the coveted job as a researcher for Time Magazine in New York City. On a stormy Saturday in late November of 1954, while waiting for a Telex from Rome with word that the Pope’s hiccups had subsided so a story could wrap and that week’s edition of the magazine could be put to bed, she and a colleague ran over from their offices in Rockefeller Center to St. Bartholomew’s church on Park Avenue to drop in on an afternoon dance.  There, she met Walter “Leigh” Robertson who asked her for a date the next day – her birthday!  Eight months later, they married.

For the next 57 years, Catherine and Leigh proceeded to build a life around their four children and their avid appreciation of bridge, tennis, books, and travel. When they moved to Hinsdale in 1968, she expressed these interests as a longtime member of Village Gardeners, the American Association of University Women, Union Church of Hinsdale, three different book clubs and various tennis and bridge groups. With her off-the-cuff comments and light hearted views, she was always a lively addition to social events. She never forgot her beloved Canada.  Summer trips to lake cottages in Canada with her dear siblings Mary Mitford Fowler (Bill) and Walter Samuel Cook (Betty) and their families were annual affairs. 

In 1974, inspired by the women’s movement, Catherine re-entered the workforce as a real estate agent and broker.  She loved keeping current on the local housing market and trends in home design.  She enjoyed the process of understanding clients’ needs and desires, educating them on the value of the neighborhood’s school system and strong sense of community, while wooing them with descriptions of the charm and uniqueness of Hinsdale and its surrounding communities.

Catherine will be profoundly missed by her sons Mackenzie Robertson, Matthew Robertson and her daughters Cathy Wagner (Chris) and Megan Krasney (Keith) and her grandchildren: William Brice, Samuel Leigh, Katherine Grace and Owen Robertson, Christopher and Carolyn Wagner and Alexandra and Dashiell Krasney.  Catherine was pre-deceased by her parents Ethel and Walter Cook, her younger sister Mitford and her husband Bill Fowler, her brother Sam Cook, her sister-in-law Ellen and her husband Eamon Devlin, and Catherine’s husband of 57 years Walter “Leigh” Robertson.

A celebration of life will be held Saturday, November 11, 2023, at 9:00 a.m.at Hinsdale Covenant Church. It will be livestreamed at https://youtube.com/live/yB5rSqTsnoA?feature=share. Memorials may be made to Hinsdale Covenant Church at www.hinsdalecovenant.com/give where gifts will be divided between the church’s Chopda Initiative, a fund to support a Christian ministry in India for nomadic people, and the Hinsdale Covenant Preschool.

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