Mary Catton

Mary Catton (née Margaret Mary Louise Catton; February 9, 1882 – May 9, 1971) was an American Hawaiian early social worker in Honolulu. She was the first woman from Hawaii to graduate from a social work degree program in 1919, and the first person to organize social services in hospitals in Hawaii in 1923.

Early life and education Margaret Mary Louise Catton was born on February 9, 1882, in Huelo, Maui, to parents Brereton Lewis (née Streat) from the British West Indies, and Scottish-born Robert Catton. Her parents arrived in Hawaii in 1878, her mother worked in an iron foundry;

She attended the Punahou School in Honolulu, and various other private schools in Hawaii and Scotland. Catton graduated in 1919 in hospital social service from New York School of Social Work (now Columbia University School of Social Work) in New York City. She also had a great interest in expanding the Hospital Flower Society, which had inspired her to study social work.

She started many other programs and organizations in Hawaii, including the Hawaii Medical Service Association in 1935, which was founded as the first voluntary prepaid plan for medical care in the United States; the Bureau of Mental Hygiene at Queen's Hospital; and a nursing home at Maunalani Heights.

She died on May 9, 1971, in Kahanaola Convalescent Hospital in Kaneohe.

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