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From Debra Conkey, Cathleen’s partner in crime

Cathleen Greiner’s quest for knowledge and adventure

When Cathleen was in first grade, she read so many books that the red and blue metallic stars Miss Sweetwood attached next to her name started running off the edge of the class poster board.

Thus began Cathleen’s engagement in lifelong learning, inquisitiveness, and adventure.

In fifth grade, one of her favorite books led Cathleen into Middle-earth, where hobbit Bilbo Baggins joins the wizard Gandolf and 13 dwarves on a quest to reclaim the dwarves’ home and treasure from the dragon Smaug.

Tolkien’s book, “The Hobbit,” and his entire series, influenced Cathleen’s life-long quests for adventure and learning. When we visited New Zealand in 2016, we hiked through “The Shire” with its colorful hobbit doors and the Party Tree in Hobbiton, which was built on a real 1250-acre sheep farm that served as the movie set for “The Hobbit” and “Lord of the Rings.”  We also spun in circles in a slick Jet boat in the middle of the Dart River in Mount Aspiring National Park—but thankfully, we didn’t get motion sick, as we surrendered into the exhilaration. (Plus, we had discovered the miracle of the Scopolamine patch.)

And Tolkien’s books, filled with hand-drawn, picturesque maps, also inspired Cathleen’s life-long love of maps and globes, which we collect in all forms.  In fact, one of Cathleen’s favorites is a small antique metallic silver globe purchased in Amsterdam, which doubles as a music box and cigarette lighter.

Over the past 36 years, it has been a blast to watch Cathleen evolve, from the time she left her job as a Catholic School principal in Bend, Oregon, to start our lives together in Laguna Beach in 1989, and to further her studies– including earning a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Management from Claremont Graduate School in 1994.

She also landed a job as Director of Science and Technology for UCI’s University Extension program for adult learners.  She recalls fond memories of mentoring students and community professionals, as well as facilitating programs and courses.  Especially exciting were weekly Chinese food dinners with UC Irvine founding professor, F. Sherwood Rowland, a witty atmospheric scientist whose research earned him a Nobel Prize in 1995 and saved countless lives world-wide by showing that chlorofluorocarbons could destroy the Earth’s ozone layer.  He succeeded in his call to ban aerosol products.

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As her career advanced, Cathleen enjoyed new intellectual challenges and steadily climbed the ladder as assistant dean, dean, and vice president-provost for various colleges. She spent the last 20 years with the California Community Colleges, where she hired faculty, mentored students, and helped them access services.  She continues to help a family set up various scholarships in the name of their son to keep his spirit alive.

Of course, Cathleen will continue her life’s passion for making a difference by sitting on various boards: as president of Vital Link,  as an appointed member of the District Export Council of Southern California, and as a board member for both the Tech Coast Venture Network and Southern California Celebrates Entrepreneurship.

While both of us pursued our careers, we traveled far and wide, including our latest expeditions–one to Snow Hill Island to photograph Emperor Penguins in Antarctica, and another that started in Dublin, sailed to five islands in Scotland and the Faroe Islands, then circumnavigated Iceland in 10 places.

Cathleen has now created a 10-year travel plan, which will bring us to New Mexico and Arizona on her “Ghost Ranch Retirement Road Trip” in April, Australia, Tasmania and Phillip Island to photograph the small blue penguins in October, and future trips to the Chilean Fjords, The Falklands and South Georgia islands to photograph King Penguins and other species, Scotland to spend a week in her great grandparents’ village of Blairgowrie, three- to six-month “residencies” in favorites like Italy, Mexico and New Zealand, the Island of Tonga to visit my high school friend who opened a restaurant there, and dozens of other destinations where Cathleen will continue to explore new cultures, historical sites,  wildlife, museums with ancient artifacts, and meet new people in her ongoing quest for learning, connection and exploration.

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