\title{Cathy Booth Memorial} \author{} \begin{Article} At the 1992 AGM it was agreed that the \ukt\ would establish the Cathy Booth Memorial Fund, to be used ``to support education and research in electronic publishing in general and in the use and development of \TeX\ and its relatives in particular, and for other charitable purposes connected with education''. The committee intended to set up a charitable trust to administer the fund, and then to collect money for it (cheques cannot be written to a trust which does not yet exist). However, both trusts and charities are covered by various laws, and the legal hurdles proved too much for the committee. Accordingly, at its meeting in February 1995, the committee decided to adopt a simpler way of honouring Cathy Booth's memory, but with the same aim. Specifically, it was decided to do something in Cathy Booth's name, at least once in each calendar year, supported by money if appropriate, for the purpose ``of furthering research and education in relation to electronic publishing in general and the use and development of the public domain typesetting program \TeX\ and related programs in particular''. (This wording is taken from the draft trust document.) As it's first act in Cathy Booth's memory, the committee gave support, in two ways, to the April 1995 GUTenberg meeting on the $\Omega$~project. It donated \pounds 200 to the meeting. It also sent Robin Fairbairns to the meeting as its delegate. A report of that meeting appears elsewhere in this issue. \begin{flushright} R. A. Bailey\\ Honorary Secretary 1991--1995 \end{flushright} \end{Article} \author{Chris Rowley and Malcolm Clark} \title{Cathy Booth 1952--1991} \begin{Article} Cathy Booth\footnote{This article is based on one that appeared in \TeX line in 1991} died on June 27th, 1991. She had known that she had cancer of the kidneys for just about a year. She had undergone a major operation the previous summer, but sadly the extensive surgery performed at that time was too late to control the cancer. During that last year she fought the disease consistently, cheerfully and resolutely; she was determined that she should not be treated any differently, despite the gradual decline in mobility and energy which ensued. Ultimately she was confined to a wheel chair and she moved into a hospice at Tiverton, near her Exeter home, in the hope that her house would be modified to allow her to return to it and continue her life as normal. However, this was not to be: she died, peacefully and gracefully, at the hospice with most of her close family at her side. Cathy was born on June 19th, 1952. She attended Exeter University, where she completed a BSc in Geography. She fell in love with Exeter and spent the rest of her life that area. She spent some time after University working on Exmoor, and later had her own business as a furniture restorer. But in 1984, after a period in hospital where she began to do some computing, she took a post as Computing Development Officer back at Exeter University. One of her first responsibilities was support of \TeX. As a result, she attended the IUSC conference on Typography and Design Methods for Computer Typesetting held at Oxford University at Easter 1985. Following that meeting, she attended a \TeX\ course held at Imperial College. Her involvement and concern with \TeX, and more generally with Electronic Publishing, grew consistently from that time. She attended many of the \TeX\ conferences in Europe (Strasbourg 1986, Karlsruhe 1989 and Cork 1990), as well as TUG meetings in North America (Montreal 1988 and Stanford 1989), and some of the GUTenberg meetings in Paris. But it will be the \TeX88 conference held at Exeter University for which she will be best remembered by many in the \TeX\ world. Cathy was the local organiser for this meeting and its huge success was due in no small way to, on the one hand, her vivacity and personal magnetism and, equally important, a lot of detailed planning and hard work that she undertook during the run up to the conference. She thus ensured the smooth running of the conference and various associated events: in particular, the memorable excursion to Totnes which included travel by both steam train and river cruiser. Cathy was an excellent teacher of \TeX. She taught a number of TUG courses on Beginning and Intermediate \TeX, and other \TeX\ courses at Exeter University and she was very energetic in organising other TUG courses in Europe. At the University she also developed courses which united her skill with \TeX\ and her design abilities. This facility with design was just one side of more general artistic skills; these later led to her completion of an Art History course. The course results were published only a few days before she died and, characteristically, hers were excellent. She was a founding member of the UK \TeX\ Users Group and of its committee; she was also a member of the committee of the BCS Electronic Publishing Specialist Group. Those of us lucky enough to be on either of those committees at that time will recall her very real contribution to the work of these groups: her range of innovative ideas, coupled with her down to earth attention to detail, resulted in significant improvements to the activities of both these organisations. \end{Article} \endinput