Death of Catherine "Kit" Bea Watts

Catherine "Kit" Bea Watts passed away on November 15, 2023. Kit became the first woman on the pastoral staff of Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church in Takoma Park, MD, in 1973, where she served for 5.5 years as minister of publications. While working at Sligo, Kit also studied library and information science at the University of Maryland and earned a master’s degree in 1978. That fall she moved to Berrien Springs, MI, and enrolled in the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University (AU), a dream deferred nearly a decade. In addition to classwork, within a few months she split her time between studies and working as periodicals librarian at the James White Library and assistant professor at AU.

Kit became well known throughout the Adventist Church when she served for nearly a decade as assistant editor of the Adventist Review. She wrote on a variety of topics in the weekly magazine, but her focus was always widening the circle of acceptance for all. She coordinated four special issues of the magazine featuring topics of concern to women. In 1997 Kit accepted the dual role of founding director of the Women’s Resource Center (WRC) at La Sierra University, Riverside, CA, and assistant to the president for communication in the Southeastern California Conference. At the WRC she had freedom to create programming and resources not only to challenge the thinking of university women (and men) but also to support women in ministry throughout the North American Division.

Read Watts' obituary here.