Dr. Cathryn Ann McBride, Ph.D.

Dr. Cathryn Ann McBride, 80, passed away on September 28, 2024, at home and surrounded by family in Madison, Wisconsin.

Ann was born on September 21, 1944 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Her father Charles Francis McBride was stationed there at a U.S. Army camp and enrolled in a field radio communications class taught by Ann’s mother, Anna Harriet Jackson. Ann grew up as the eldest of four siblings on the family dairy farm near Milton, Wisconsin. She listened to baseball games on the radio with her grandpa and feasted, along with the 26 other grandchildren, on Gram’s Sunday dinner. Always independent, Ann escaped from her first day of school and walked back home alone over a mile of countryside. She played baritone in the Milton Union High School marching band and marched in JFK’s inaugural parade. Ann graduated with top scholastic honors in her class. As a young adult she took a bus all the way to Mexico with her sister Mary Lou and led youth groups to Switzerland as part of the Experiment in International Living program. There, she learned to make fondue, which became an enduring family tradition for winter holidays later in her life.

Her love of exploring cultures and ideas led her to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she met another graduate student, Sanjay Limaye. They bonded over outdoor adventures, including cross-country skiing and a Graduate Student Club trip to Peninsula State Park in Door County. Ann graduated with a Ph.D. in comparative literature in 1977; taught at the Inter American University in San Germán, Puerto Rico; and moved to Manhattan, where she married Sanjay in 1978. As a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow she joined a seminar at Columbia University led by Prof. Edward Said, a founder of post-colonial studies. She gave an introductory lecture and dined with the author Carlos Fuentes during his visit to Madison in 1982. Fuentes’ works continued to inspire her critical studies for years.

Ann’s experiences informed decades of teaching in Wisconsin public schools, including English as a Second Language and multicultural literature. She lovingly raised three sons in a house filled with books, and on Sundays, the scent of freshly baked scones. She delighted in reading at Espresso Royale Caffe in late afternoons and walking to Picnic Point in all seasons. She even snowshoed across a frozen Lake Mendota to get there in February 2020.

Ann is remembered by her devoted husband of 45 years, Sanjay; her sister and best friend, Mary Lou; her brother Dan (Christy); and her sons Kiran, Vijay (Stephen) and Ajay (Angilee). She is preceded in death by her sister Frances (Barry).

Ann’s family will hold a memorial gathering for friends and neighbors on Saturday, October 5. For more information, please send a text message to (310) 928-1598. Condolences may be sent to Cress Funeral Services, c/o Cathryn Ann McBride, 3610 Speedway Rd., Madison, WI 53705. In lieu of flowers, the family kindly suggests donating in Ann’s memory to the Friends of the Lakeshore Nature Preserve https://www.friendslakeshorepreserve.com/donorform2.html

Cress Funeral & Cremation Service

3610 Speedway Road, Madison

(608) 238-3434