A memorial service will be held on Monday, Jan. 27 at 3 p.m. at the MIT Chapel for Catherine Lynn Steele, 51, an administrative assistant in the Department of Economics, Finance and Accounting at the Sloan School since 1989. She died in the MIT Medical inpatient unit on Dec. 10 after a seven-year battle with cancer.
Steele received her B.A. from Smith College and her D.M.A. in composition in 1993 from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She was an accomplished musician adept at piano and violin, and she composed operas, a requiem, chamber music and songs. She was also multilingual; she taught herself languages from books, tapes and music, and wrote translations of poetry and prose in Swedish, Portuguese, Spanish, German, French, Finnish, Russian and Norwegian.
Selected pieces she composed will be played at the Jan. 27 service. There will be a reception afterwards in the Mezzanine Lounge in the Stratton Student Cente
Steele is survived by her father, James Steele of Florida; a sister, Pamela Reznick, and a niece and nephew, all of Washington, D.C.
