Kathryn Elizabeth Coe, 71, of Washington Depot, Conn., and Chilmark, passed away peacefully on Sunday, Dec. 15, 2024, surrounded by her loving family. She was the wife for 47 years of Tom Hollinger.
Kathy was born on Jan. 8, 1953, in Hartford, Conn., daughter of Howard and Helen Coe. She was a graduate of the Loomis Chaffee School and Smith College, and retired as a teacher from the Washington Montessori School in Connecticut. She was a member of the Chilmark Pond Association executive board, served on the Abel’s Hill Pond committee, and held a certificate as a master wildlife conservationist in Connecticut. A gifted and creative Montessori teacher with a storytelling heart and deep sense of place, she mentored countless students over her 40-year career at the Grier School in Pennsylvania and at Washington Montessori School.
Kathy first came to the Vineyard when she was 5, and she continued to return every summer to the family camp on Chilmark Pond. Her summers were filled with clamming, fishing, swimming, and days on the beach. She loved going to the Chilmark Community Center as a child to attend activities like square dances. Later, at the urging of Eddie Chalif, Kathy joined her sisters Gigi and Carol and worked at the center. She helped to run the Center Preschool program for four years. The rich environment of people, land, and sea sparked her creativity with kids: doing grave rubbings, making wild sassafras tea into ice cream, and picking berries and beach plums. In her spare time, she got a lobster license, and spent hours lobstering with her dad and friends, inviting new friends along to share the bounty. She also participated in the Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby.
She married Tom Hollinger in 1977 in the yard of her beloved camp, complete with a clambake reception with lobsters she and her dad collected. Jack Wallace officiated at her wedding. In due course, they brought their two sons, Philip and Chas, to spend their summers at the camp. Over the course of those years, Kathy kept and made friends with many Vineyarders and seasonal folk, some of whom she had taught at the Community Center.
Her love of Chilmark Pond lasted a lifetime, and in her later years she spent hours on committees, doing research, talking to experts and getting their advice, and then relaying that information to individuals and groups, all to make Chilmark Pond healthier. She was devoted to trying to protect Chilmark Pond, and the pond has lost a great champion and advocate.
Her nurturing spirit extended beyond family, friends, and students to beloved generations of cats and dogs, two evolving gardens, and the natural world outside her door in Chilmark and Washington. The glorious gardens, and innumerable scarves, sweaters, and quilts, she fashioned remain a testament to her skilled hands, unique eye for color, and passion for gardening, knitting, and quilting. Loved by all who knew her, she was especially admired over the past five years for her fierce tenacity, determination, and grit.
In addition to her husband Tom, Kathy is survived by her sons, Philip Coe Hollinger (Samantha) of Chilmark, and Charles Howard Hollinger (Kelly) of New Milford, Conn.; her sisters, Gigi Robinson (Dan) and Carol Fowler (Fred), both of Grand Junction, Colo.; and many well-loved nieces, nephews, grand-nieces, and grand-nephews.
The burial will be in the spring in the Abel’s Hill Cemetery.
Memorial contributions may be made to Martha’s Vineyard Shellfish Group, P.O. Box 1552, Oak Bluffs, MA 02557, the Smilow Cancer Center, Yale New Haven Hospital, Office of Development, P.O. Box 429176, Boston, MA 02241-9176, or to RVNA Health, 68 Park Lane Road, New Milford, CT 06776.
