Dr Edgar S Cathcart, MB BCh BAO 1955, DSc 1977 (died 4 April 2008)

(Obituary – The Wellesley Townsman, www.wickedlocal.com  10/04/08)

Wellesley - Dr Edgar S. Cathcart of Beverly, an internationally acclaimed expert on rheumatology, died Friday, April 4, 2008, peacefully at his home. He was 76. For the past 24 years Dr Cathcart had lived on Hospital Point, Beverly, overlooking the ocean.

He crossed on the SS. United States from his native Ireland 52 years ago to become an American citizen. Prior to living in Beverly he resided in Wellesley and Dedham.

Dr Cathcart earned his medical and doctorate of science degrees from Queen’s University, Belfast. He completed his residency training in the United Kingdom and Lahey Clinic Boston, followed by a rheumatology fellowship at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

A professor of medicine at Boston University from 1977 to 2003, he authored over 200 publications, delivering medical and scientific papers throughout the world. During that time he was also closely associated with arthritis programs at the Boston City and University Hospitals.

Prior to his retirement Dr Cathcart was the chief of staff at the Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital in Bedford. Appointed to this post in 1984, he had earlier established the first Geriatric Rheumatology Centre at the Bedford V.A.

He was a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and a past president of the North-eastern Section of the American Rheumatology Association. He served on the board of directors of the Lupus Foundation. He was also a member of the Young Turks Independent Research Investigators.

Dr Cathcart was internationally recognized for his work on amyloid proteins. Such research has broad clinical implications, amyloid unbalance having been linked to Alzheimer’s disease and bone marrow cancer as well as chronic inflammatory disease.
As one of the principal investigators of the Sudbury Health Survey, he helped to determine the incidence of arthritis and gout in an urban population. He presented these findings internationally.

In addition to attending professional conferences, Dr Cathcart travelled extensively with family and friends; camping and tenting with his wife and four children in small towns all over Europe and the United States. Moultonborough, N.H., was among his favourite destinations.

An avid reader, he was happy to read “Pilgrim’s Progress” to his young children by candlelight, while volunteering his time as the physician on call at Outward Bound’s Hurricane Island. He delighted his grandchildren with Irish ditties and dancing.
Dr Cathcart is survived by his wife of 50 years, Geraldine (Dowd) Cathcart; his daughter Susan and husband Greg Mace of Seattle, Wash., son Charles and his wife Nellie Cathcart of Little Falls, N.J., son Alan and his wife Lucinda Cathcart of Newburyport, and daughter Heather and her husband Todd Kozan of Newburyport; 13 grandchildren; and his sister, Elizabeth Orr Isles of Tasmania.  He was the son of the late Sarah and Charles Cathcart of Northern Ireland.

 

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