Two students (rear), Sue Terpack, Maureen Cato, and Josée Kupferschmid (front), at the 29th International Symposium on Combustion in Sapporo, Japan

Maureen D. Cato, a dedicated employee of The Combustion Institute for 16 years from 1996 to 2012, passed away peacefully on Friday 9 September 2016 with her family at her side. Maureen’s largest contribution to the international combustion community was in her editing proficiency and intricate attention to detail for scientific papers submitted to symposia.

In a time prior to the publishing relationship with Elsevier and before electronic paper submissions, CI worked with a publication team. As a diligent proofreader and editor, Maureen played an integral part of the publishing process. Maureen assisted Sue Terpack, the previous CI Executive Administrator, to ensure authors submitted seven copies of their papers to Pittsburgh, where they were then organized and distributed to reviewers and program chairs. She also worked closely with the membership to prepare comments and replies for publishing in the Proceedings of The Combustion Institute.

In 1996, the CI office first adopted the initiative to organize symposia programs beginning with the 26th International Symposium on Combustion at the University of Naples Federico II, Italy. The success of that organizing effort was due in large part to Maureen’s abilities. Always performing above and beyond the call of duty, Maureen was a leading administrative voice in the development and refinement of the first CI online submission system. She also filled in for office assistants and trained new staff when necessary.

Longtime CI members and employees often recall Maureen’s smile, her sense of humor, and her kindness to all members of the international combustion community. She regularly looked forward to rekindling friendships and meeting new students at each symposium. She will always be remembered as an excellent teacher, thoughtful advisor, and a wonderful friend.

Notes of sympathy may be directed to Barb Waronek, CI Executive Administrator: Barb@CombustionInstitute.org. Messages must be received by 14 November 2016 to become part of a compilation that will be presented to Maureen’s family this autumn.