Katharine MacKenty Was Alumna of Chapin School

Katharine W. MacKenty of Vineyard Haven, formerly of Scarsdale, New York, died on August 15 in her 100th year at the Henrietta Brewer House in Vineyard Haven where she had resided since January 1996.

Known as Bunny to all her family and friends, she was born on March 31, 1905 in Greenville (adjoining Scarsdale), New York. She was the oldest daughter of Roberts Walker, a senior partner of White & Case and Edna Morse Walker Jackson, and the last survivor of their five daughters. She was educated at the Chapin School in New York city and attended Vassar College with the Class of 1927.

In 1926, she married the late John G. MacKenty, and they lived in Scarsdale, N.Y., until 1945 when they moved permanently to Edgartown. They had purchased the Vincent House on Edgartown Great Pond in 1941 after enjoying the four previous summers in the Whiting Camps on West Tisbury Great Pond. Divorced in the early 1950s, she returned to New York city and from 1958 to 1986 lived with her son, John, and his family in Scarsdale on part of the property she had grown up on. Mrs. MacKenty spent the next 10 years at the Springvale Inn at Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y., near Van Courtlandville in Peekskill where her grandmother, Augusta Robertson, was raised. In 1996, she returned to the Vineyard when the Brewer House became available and where she could be near her on-Island families and visited often by those who came seasonally.

The Chapin School was her great love -- in her early years as a student and later as an active alumna. She was the penultimate survivor of the Class of 1923, served as her class secretary since 1966; and, most significantly, served as Chapin's historian for nearly 30 years starting in the mid-1960s. She developed and maintained the school's archives in perfect order and served as a longtime member of the school's alumnae executive committee, sharing her knowledge and recollections of the early school with many alumnae.

Mrs. MacKenty was unable to attend her 80th reunion last year, but at the alumnae luncheon, her many contributions and her extraordinary dedication were recognized and saluted by the association's president. As she wrote to the alumnae on that occasion, "I am grateful to the Chapin School and prouder than ever to be part of an ongoing, positive force in this troubled world."

She had many other interests; she was an avid reader and correspondent, always acknowledging even the smallest kindness. A week before her death, she sent a letter to her son, John. Her memory was impressive, and she maintained her interest in current events until recently, reading The New York Times and other newspapers daily. When she resided at the Springvale Inn, she was active in the Van Courtlandville Historical Society and contributed many documents and letters from her grandmother and her family about Peekskill history. She was also an early member of the Cosmopolitan Club in New York City.

Mrs. MacKenty is survived by her three children: John E. MacKenty of Edgartown; Katharine M. Bigelow of Winchester; and Jeremiah G. MacKenty of Edgartown; 11 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Her memorial service will be a private ceremony at the cemetery where her parents, three of her sisters, her grandparents and many collateral relatives are interred. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made in her memory to The Chapin School, 100 East End avenue, New York, NY 10028.