Obituary of Cathmar Prange

Cathmar Prange passed away January 14, 2026 at the age of 97.

She was born in Philadelphia to a Scottish immigrant and a descendant of the American Revolution, grew up in South Orange, New Jersey and spent summers at the ocean.

An active and adventurous person, she completed a bachelor’s degree in physical education at Iowa State Teachers College in 1949. She taught PE in Iowa for several years before earning a master’s degree in dance education at Columbia University. She went on to teach health and PE, focusing on dance, at East Carolina State Teachers College. She also enjoyed several summers as a counselor at Camp Tapawingo in Maine, teaching canoeing, sailing and swimming.

She met her future husband in the Telemark mountains of Norway. They married in New York City in 1956 and moved to Chicago, Illinois for his work. Shortly after the birth of their first daughter in 1957, they moved again, to Macomb, Illinois where they raised four children.

While raising her kids, she was a 4H leader and taught hundreds of children to swim through the local Red Cross swimming program. During that time, she became a nationally ranked Masters swimmer. She began oil painting as a full-time mother, inviting her children to join her for art projects in her basement studio on rainy days. When weather was good, she took them out to explore the woods and fields. As the kids matured, she was able to devote more time to her painting.

After divorcing in 1979, she began work as an administrative assistant and moved to the Iowa City area in 1981 to work in that role at the University of Iowa. She retired in 1988 to devote her time to painting and writing poetry between her studios in Riverside, Iowa and Wacissa, Florida. While in Florida she also spent time working in her father, John Mackay Shaw’s Childhood in Poetry Collection at Florida State University’s Strozier Library.

She moved to Iowa City’s Oaknoll Retirement Residence in 2015 where she came to know a wonderful community of friends. In 2021, she published a book of her poetry: The Sea, the Sky, the Land, and Us.

She is survived by three daughters and a son, four grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

She will be remembered by those who knew her for her curiosity, kindness, and gentle strength.

No memorial is planned. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Cathmar’s name to the John M. Shaw Endowment Fund at Florida State University (https://give.fsu.edu/Shaw) or to the Oaknoll Foundation (https://oaknoll.com/support-volunteer/). For a complete obituary, to share a thought, memory or condolence with her family please visit Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service website @ www.gayandciha.com