Catharine Cookson, J.D., Ph.D.
Founding Director
1952 - 2004
Dr. Cookson served as the director of the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom since 1998. At Virginia Wesleyan, a United Methodist-founded college, she created a "safe zone" where people of various faith backgrounds could discuss religious issues in a fair and impartial manner. Through the center, Dr. Cookson provided an educational foundation to the community to create understanding in a culturally diverse world.
During semester-long symposia, the center has featured renowned scholars and explored issues such as religious freedom and civility in the public square and religion and nationalism. The center has also held workshops on a variety of issues for public school teachers, senior citizens, religious groups, military chaplains and community organizations. One of the center's signature programs is NEXUS, an interfaith dialogue that brings people of diverse faiths together for education and dialogue.
Dr. Cookson and the center have received awards from the National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ), the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and Public Policy, the Jewish Community Center of South Hampton Roads, the Muslim Community of Tidewater, the Virginia Beach Human Rights Commission, and the YWCA of South Hampton Roads.
Dr. Cookson's dream for the center was to provide not only an education of the mind, but also of the heart. One of her earliest memories was of her mother telling her to "put yourself in the other person's place."
This lesson guided her throughout her life. She understood that to change hearts, people with radically different worldviews must meet face-to-face and experience first-hand their common humanity. She laid the foundation at the center for opportunities to take students out of the classroom and into the community to meet and work with people of different faiths.
Dr. Cookson launched the center to international recognition last fall when she was asked to speak on religious tolerance in pluralistic societies at the first Parliamentary Forum on the Mediterranean in Rome. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Parliamentary Assembly, gathered 317 members from national parliaments in 55 participating nations to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue to meet the challenges of democracy in the 21st century.
She has also advanced religious freedom through her well-received monograph on the First Amendment, Regulating Religion (Oxford University Press, 2001), and through her Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom (Routledge Press, 2003). Both volumes are substantial and important resources for scholars and laypeople around the country.
A native of New Jersey, Dr. Cookson attended St. Ladislaus Grammar School and St. Peter High School in New Brunswick. She received her bachelor's degree in history from Mundelein College in Chicago, and a J.D. from Rutgers University Law School in Newark, NJ. After practicing environmental law for a number of years, Dr. Cookson decided in 1990 to follow her quest to better understand religion and how it influences life in America. She received a master's degree in religious studies in 1992 from the University of Virginia and a Ph.D. at Indiana University in 1997, where she discovered her passion for the connections between law, religion and social issues in America. Dr. Cookson lived in Norfolk since 1998, where she was an active member of Christ and Saint Lukes Episcopal Church.
Dr. Cookson is survived by her husband and daughter, John and Rachael Born; her mother, Agnes Cookson of Virginia Beach; three brothers: Robert Cookson of Humble, TX; Michael Cookson of Wilmington, NC; and Andrew Cookson of Raleigh, NC; and two sisters: Clare Cookson Lewis of Natick, MA; and Ruth Cookson of Norfolk.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 23 at Christ and Saint Lukes Episcopal Church in Norfolk.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made in her memory to the Center for the Study of Religious Freedom at Virginia Wesleyan College, 1584 Wesleyan Drive, Norfolk, VA 23502-5599.
Dr. Cookson has been recognized as a significant change-agent throughout the state and beyond. May we all remember her and keep her spirit alive as we learn to live peacefully with our profound religious differences.