CATHLEEN MARIE WILLIAMS, 1950-2013

Berkey woman worked for Paramount

12/16/2013

Cathleen Marie Williams, 63, a provider relations specialist for Paramount Health Care who formerly worked with senior citizens, died Thursday in her home.

Her son, Pete Clark, said she died in her sleep in her home in Berkey from an apparent heart attack.

Mrs. Williams had worked for Paramount Health Care in Maumee’s Arrowhead Park. She had been employed 13 years for the firm as a provider relations specialist, a position that sprang from previous jobs in health care.

“She loved her job. She liked the people she worked with. She liked traveling to the different sites she was sent,” Mr. Clark said.

Mrs. Williams met her husband, Dr. James Williams, a dentist, through Paramount.

They were married in May, 2009, but had been together since 2005. Dr. Williams died in 2011.

The former Cathleen Lowe, she was born Sept. 6, 1950, in Cleveland. She graduated from Brush High School.

She continued her education at Kent State University, where she studied art history and art education. She transferred to the University of Toledo after she married David W. Clark. They were married from April 18, 1970, to Sept. 25, 1986.

Mrs. Williams taught art at Stranahan Elementary in Sylvania for several years.

While raising her family, Mrs. Williams became an aerobics instructor at the YMCA in West Toledo. She also was a geriatrics aerobics instructor for Toledo Hospital’s Health Awareness Program.

“She really got into aerobics. She really liked it,” Mr. Clark said. “She had a passion working with the elderly.”

She also worked at Otterbein Portage Valley retirement community in Pemberville, Ohio, where she was activities director and volunteer coordinator. She held a similar position at Sunset House.

She also was married to Michael F. Minnich.

Mrs. Williams enjoyed working in the gardens of her yard in the spring and summer in all of the homes she owned.

“She really had a green thumb,” her son said.

Surviving are her sons, Bret and Pete Clark; father, Arthur Lowe; mother, Joanne Lowe; sisters, Maureen Dorsey, Sue St. John, Debbie Malaney, Sandi Ponti, and Linda Thomas, and brother, Michael Lowe.

Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. today in the Dowling Funeral Home, 7509 New West Rd., at King Road, in Sylvania Township.

Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in the funeral home.

The family suggests tributes to the Toledo Humane Society, Nature’s Nursery, or Richfield Township Fire and Rescue.