Catherine Seibert Jahn died peacefully at the Stonebridge Retirement Community on May 13, 2011, with her family by her bedside. A longtime resident of the Princeton community, Kit touched many with her gracious and optimistic personality, her love for her family, and her enduring commitment to early childhood education, despite a range of physical challenges.

Born in Plainfield, New Jersey, Kit's adolescent years were spent in Hopewell with her parents and younger sister Marie. She attended the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. Following college, she became a technical secretary in the Statistics Department at Princeton University. She married Robert Jahn in June 1953, and they moved soon after to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where she taught at the local YWCA. Three years later they moved to Pasadena, California, and then returned to Princeton in 1962, where she lived for the rest of her life.

Kit raised four devoted children, Eric, Jill, Nina, and Dawn. She was actively involved in their lives and in the community, serving as a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader, classroom parent and in a variety of other volunteer roles. Kit also served as a surrogate mother to several generations of her husband's research students and participated in many aspects of his Princeton University career.

Kit taught at the University League Nursery School for 25 years, where she touched the lives of countless children and their families. After her retirement, she served as a volunteer reader at the Littlebrook Elementary School, an advisor to the Princeton YWCA, and a community-wide advocate for people living with disabilities. For the past seven years, Kit was a resident of the Stonebridge Retirement Community, where she was an active and well-loved member. Most recently, she served as President of the Resident's Council of the Skilled Nursing Unit.

Kit is survived by her husband, sister, four children, and seven grandchildren, all of whom are grateful for her love and lifelong devotion.

Memorial Services, to which all of her friends and colleagues are invited, are planned for the Stonebridge Retirement Community Assisted Living Facility, 100 Hollinshead Spring Road, Skillman, New Jersey 08558 at 2:00 PM on Wednesday, May 25th and for the Princeton University Chapel on Monday, June 6th at 11 AM. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to The Kit Jahn Memorial Scholarship Fund, University League Nursery School, 171 Broadmead Street, Princeton, NJ 08540.