Dr. Kathryn Ann Sinkovich, 81, died peacefully in her sleep at her home in Corona on April 19, 2019. She is survived by her husband Dana F. Sutton and her sister Mary Ellen Shaffer of Middletown Pennsylvania, and many close friends. Born (in 1937) and raised in Middletown, she received her Batchelor's Degree from Millersville State College in 1959 and then devoted several years of service to teaching Latin in the Central Dauphin Pa. school district. After a few years she made up her mind to aim higher and won admission into the Classics graduate program of the University of Wisconsin (Madison). After writing a dissertation under the supervision of the late Prof. Paul MacKendrick, she was awarded the PhD. in Classics in 1971. Her first academic position was an Assistant Professor of Classics at the University of Tennessee (Chattanooga). In 1975 she married Dana Sutton of Bronxville, NY (a fellow graduate student at Wisconsin), who was about to take up an academic position at the University of Illinois, and they moved to Champaign-Urbana. Four years later they moved west when Dana received an appointment at the University of California at Irvine, and soon thereafter they found a house in Corona, where they have spent the remainder of their lives. After brief appointments as a Lecturer at UCI and Cal State Long Beach, in 1983 Kathy found her true home teaching Latin at The Mayfield School in Pasadena, where she remained until her retirement in 2002. At one point, during a staffing crisis the Headmistress was obliged to ask her to teach the school's course in Advanced Placement English. Her students fared so well on the AP examination that this responsibility was entrusted to her for the remainder of her career. Many of Kathy's students have been accepted by such colleges and universities as Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, UCLA, USC, St. Andrews, and the United States Naval Academy, and gone on to have happy and prosperous lives and careers. During one year, the Mayfield students elected her Teacher of the Year. She was also the author of successful textbooks on Elementary and Intermediate Latin and the Latin etymologies of English words. After retirement, Kathy found herself free to devote herself full time to her enthusiasms: cooking and baking, gardening, and contract bridge. Wishing to become involved in some charitable activity, she allowed herself to be appointed Co-Chair of the gift shop at the Heritage House operated by the Riverside Metropolitan Museum and was responsible for its stocking and day-to-day operation . To everyone's surprise (and most of all to her own) she turned out to have an unanticipated flair for retail marketing and the shop became profitable enough to become an important source of income for the House. Kathy was warm and outgoing person and quickly won respect and admiration for the integrity and dedication she displayed in whatever she chose to do. Her loss will be deeply mourned by her many friends and former students. Arrangements for a private funeral are currently being made. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Heritage House.
Published on Pennlive.com and in The Patriot-News from Apr. 25 to Apr. 28, 2019.