Biography: Mrs. Catherine Hodges Hamilton [Hepinstall], born Catherine Zolite Hodges to Roland F. Hodges and Sigrid Rasmussen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 13, 1928.  She passed away on Wednesday evening, March 10, 2021, at age 92.  She was guided to that transition by the love of those gathered, including family and friends; and by the sounds of a familiar whistle her father famously whistled while working menial jobs.

Ms. Catherine is survived by two dear sons, David and Robert “Bobby” as well as his wife, Brenda.  She is survived by a sister,  Marillyn Holmes, of Grenada Hills, California; her nieces, Hynndie Wali of Hollywood, California, Barbara Bullock (Gary McKay) of Memphis, Tennessee, and Cyrille Bullock, and a nephew, Bill Bullock (Teresa) of Memphis and their two boys, Will and Price (Vanessa).  Two grandsons, Lee Hamilton and Brandon Romero (Lisa), and her two great grandchildren, Catherine and Alexander Romero.  Relatives that preceded her in death include husband, David Cowle Hamilton (Little Rock), and second husband Jack Hepinstall (Houston, TX); her parents; her stepmother, Isabel Hodges, her uncle, Essie Rasmussen, and aunt, Ella Rasmussen.  Allso surviving are stepdaughters Margie, Kathy, Becky Hepinstall and their husbands, as well as a step son, Randy Hepinstall.

Mrs. Hamilton was a highly regarded chemistry schoolteacher in Arkansas during the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s, retiring to a long and comfortable retirement in 1989. A few years later, she married her original high school sweetheart, Jack, and expanded her family with four new step kids. She was also a devoted member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, beginning in 1959. That was the year she moved ‘down from the mountain’ – Petit Jean Mountain – with little David in tow, big David having a job as assistant president of Winrock Enterprises, and little Bobby on the way.

Her earlier life began consciously in Memphis in 1932 in the depression. Memphis would become her home away from home for those 62 years spent in the Cammack Village/Kingwood area of northern Little Rock. Then at about 10, her industrious lumber mill owner dad took his family of three girls to Pass Christian.  Catherine spent a couple of boarding school years at All Saints in Vicksburg, MS. During her WWII high school years, she lived in New Orleans, LA, on Jefferson Avenue near Tulane/Newcombe, where she matriculated and met returning GI David C.  They married in 1949, the first pair of students to ever marry while in college there.

The two ventured to Boston (Cambridge), where she worked as a graduate researcher at MIT, on chemical soil modification to harden runways in Korea. She helped David C. earn an MBA at Harvard.  Then in 1952 it was Queens and Brooklyn, New York. She worked at Pfizer Corporation again as a researcher, in medicine. Upon a request by Winthrop Rockefeller who met David C. at Morgan Stanley, in 1957, the two came to Arkansas to work on Petit Jean. She became a housewife.

In the mid 60’s as a single mom, she began teaching in LR Public Schools, at the request of neighbor Terrell Powell (principal of Hall High School).  She distinguished herself and was named science department chairman in about 1975. In 1987 she was named runner up Arkansas Teacher of the Year, and began a text book consulting service to Merrill Publishing.

Mrs. Hamilton blended a life of science, the arts, and religion.  Moved by Carson’s “Silent Spring”, she initiated ecological teaching at Hall High in 1970: “Science and Survival” was her course’s name. In 1981, she was the first woman named a commissioner to the Little Rock Sewer Committee.  Later in retirement, she assisted the Halberg Camp for Audubon Arkansas.

Mrs. Hamilton was a super avid reader, of religious books especially. She loved the Arkansas Symphony, being a one-time local piano teacher, and the Arts Center. She was a good soprano singer. She decorated her home very tastefully, and prepared gorgeous and very tasty meals. She was an artist at life. However, she was also modest, not show-biz.

Among the things she found illuminating, were:  the college at out-of-the-way Sewanee TN; bird watching and gardening, the Grande Maumelle Sailing Club; Rev. Dean Higgins and Rev. Joel Pugh of Trinity; smart kids; her off-grid family lodge at Low Gap, Arkansas on the Buffalo river; and simple friends.  In fact, what she cherished most was friends.

She was a member of AAUW and attended their monthly book club for years.  She was very active in a monthly lunch group, attended classes at Life Quest, was a long time member of Trinity Episcopal Cathedral, and attended a weekly bible study group at Pulaski Heights Presbyterian Church.

She was also a brave voyager; her life can be thought of as a very long voyage. It is epitomized in the true voyage she took with her sons and niece Cyrille, and parents up and down the east coast in 1964, on her dad’s sailing yacht, the Man-a-wa-nui. Every major port and sight-seeing venture was taken in, from the New York World’s Fair and Washington, DC, to sleepy Hyannis Port, MA, to elegant Charleston South Carolina. Interspersed were ‘weeks at sea’, with scary storms and majestic sunny summer days sailing with porpoises.

Arrangements for a memorial service at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral are being made. Please give to “Memorial Tree Certificate” at this email address "orders@cfsfuneralhomes.com" if you wish to make a donation in her honor. She also loves flowers!

“A meek and quiet spirit is of great price before the Lord.”