Cathy Cranston and I met far away from home at a conference of the Magazine Publishers of America (MPA). We were making small talk in the hotel check-in line when we discovered that we lived only three miles apart in the town of Chappaqua. We bonded instantly and sat with each other throughout the conference.

After that our lives began criss crossing, which is part of the great fun of business. We got together with our husbands, and Bob asked Bruce if he would join the Chappaqua Volunteer Ambulance Corp, which Bruce did with great enthusiasm. Cathy's birthday party was hosted by her running partner, Dr. Barbara Alpert, who soon became our essential family doctor–the old fashioned kind who really knows her patients. Barbara Bella, my oldest business partner (in association, not age!), was Cathy's esteemed west coast representative at Harvard Business Review. Cathy and I zealously worked on a campaign to get fellow publisher Stephanie Sandberg to move her family to Chappaqua, just to raise the level of fun in our town.

Cathy and I were both devoted moms, and we traded stories of "how the kids are doing" whenever we met. James and Meredith were the center core of her life, just like Robert and Julia are for me. We understood each other's passion for audacious effort at work and fierce love at home. We didn't have to justify this yin and yang–we celebrated our powerful passions by keeping each other up to date on both sides of the story. 

Cathy was tremendously proud of my efforts at Working Mother magazine. She was excited that I was playing in the testosterone heavy arena as a media business owner. When I asked Bruce how I might help remember Cathy in the business community he asked that we commemorate her desire to help  women advance to the highest levels of executive positions in publishing. I know my publishing friends and I will find a way to fulfill this wish.

Keeping up with Cathy in business was not easy. She wanted her magazines to win, and she went all out to meet that goal. Barbara Bella told me that Cathy went on 143 sales calls with her in California–vastly more than any other publisher. Keeping up with Cathy as an athlete was equally impossible. She ran while the rest of us walked. It is an analogy that could be applied to her whole life.

Cathy's battle with leukemia began in August when she told our mutual doctor that she was finding herself frequently short of breath. Dr. Alpert is thorough and urgent and discovered the leukemia days later. The campaign to save Cathy's life was aggressive and cutting edge.
 
No one has ever fought harder for her life than Cathy. And no one has worked harder to maintain normalcy during that dreadful battle than Cathy. She kept her family on an even keel, kept friends informed and pushed all out at the Columbia Journalism Review. The people at CJR were amazing. They supported Cathy in every way, and should be widely commended for their devotion to the needs of their employees.

When I visited Cathy in the hospital a few weeks before she succumbed to the ravages of the disease she was in a terrible physical state, but she was remarkably agile of mind. We talked about "how the kids are doing," and she was excited that it was Meredith's 15 birthday. Bruce was taking Meredith and some friends to a concert, and Cathy was thrilled about that. We talked about business. And we talked about her illness. She was shocked, she said, by this disease. "I could understand getting hit by a bus," she said, "but leukemia?" She was also determined, and in high fighting spirit. "I'm going to fight, fight, fight," she said. She was so physically weak, but she was so mentally strong, and I left with hope in my heart that she might win against the odds like she did so often in business.

There are so many things I haven't included here about Cathy. Her generosity, her love of gardening, her brilliant mind. Cathy's dad, Jim Cronin, is a Nobel prize-winning scientist, and Cathy certainly inherited his brainiac genes and passed them on to her children. Son James is off to Stanford in the fall, and Cathy's west coast friends are hoping to be able to help him acclimate to the other coast. Did I mention that the kids are amazing musicians? Bruce and Cathy are both accomplished musicians. True to form, Cathy once decided to learn to sight-read all of Bach's piano repertoire. When a friend asked her why she was doing it she said it was just for the challenge.

But most of all I need to write about her husband, Bruce. About how he gave up his own stellar career in California and moved to New York so that Cathy could follow her dream of being a publishing executive. How his bright and cheerful personality has always lifted the spirits of those around him. How he has devoted himself to family, home, friends and especially to Cathy.

Bruce has the support of this community. I am so proud of how Chappaqua has responded. Chappaqua friends and neighbors, the parents of Meredith and James' friends,  and even people who didn't know Cathy well have cooked for the Cranstons, gardened for them, car pooled, and kept close watch over their needs. We all thought Cathy would get better, and we were poised to welcome her home.

Thank you Cathy. For working so hard to get better. For being devoted to the many roles in which you chose to excel. For shaping our lives in so many ways. We miss you terribly.

Cathryn Cronin Cranston became publisher of Columbia Journalism Review (CJR) in August, 2010, and was the former publisher of the Harvard Business Review.