Cat Meyer begins her journey with the Rotary Club of Ann Arbor as Executive Administrator on January 22, 2024. Read on to learn more about Cat.

Cat Grew up in Detroit

Cat was a 1967 Cooley High School graduate. She has four siblings. Her mom raised five children, and passed away at the young age of 50 from lung and liver cancer. Her Dad lived 89 years, happily remarrying two other fine stepmoms until they passed away. Cat’s family remains happy to gather, party, and play games.  She often retreats to Indian River cabin on the banks of the Sturgeon River.

Dad was a World War II veteran who flooded their side yard to ice skate every winter and took family tobogganing in Rouge Park after ice skating. He taught his kids how to execute controlled donuts in the car safely in Rouge Park parking lots during our driving lessons. These fun exercises were a most valuable lesson for Michigan winters. Cat’s Dad was a bit of a comic, saying he could not understand what he did wrong raising us kids, when he discovered his son was a Republican.

Cat’s twin sister had grand mal seizures until she had one-inch brain tissue removed at the University of Michigan hospital. Helen and Cat were often subjects of clinical studies due to the uniqueness of one twin with epilepsy and one without. Helen and Cat were featured in the Detroit Free Press article. Cat is sensitized to disability issues and remains an assertive advocate.

Brother, Bob was President of Dearborn Rotary until his passing in August 2023.  He was the Rotary’s skinniest Santa and was featured in many photos with community members to raise funds for Rotary. He delighted in singing a very silly welcome song with everyone at Rotary meetings. He was recognized for his years of service, shortly before he became sick.

Cat’s oldest sister, Joann, is a Financial Advisor at Donald Radabaugh in Canton, MI. She and her husband Doug are a Gold Star family, after losing their adopted son, Joseph, in action in Afghanistan. Doug and Joann have raised money for Veterans’ families through their affiliation with Gold Star Families.

Cat’s baby sister, Jeri, works for Wayne State University in the Critical Care Department. She and her husband are planning for retirement in a couple of years. Jeri’s personality is a bit like Joanne Pierson’s, larger than life and you can hear Jeri coming from miles away.

Sports/Music/Hobbies

Bicycle marathons, cross country skiing (Cat goes north in winter); league bowling, pickleball, horseback riding, euchre, double pinochle, board games, beekeeping on a 17-acre homestead, and dancing.

Ann Arbor

Cat moved to Ann Arbor in 1970 to work in the Dean’s Office at the School of Public Health with Myron Wegman, MD; Dr. Wegman encouraged Cat to apply to Nursing School. While in Nursing School she became the UM’s first woman student bus driver. She drove regents and president and chartered school buses (featured in Ann Arbor News). Cat’s mom was dying of lung and liver cancer in her senior year in 1974, which upended Cat’s finishing her last semester. Dad became Mr. Mom to the two youngest kids.

Current Family

Cat was married to Earl Meyer on 6/4/1982. Their daughter, Jennifer, lives in Seattle WA with Cat’s two grandchildren, and son, James, lives with Cat in Manchester, MI. Cat met her husband Earl after she hit a yearling buck with her car on her way to work. The police officer told her she could get a kill permit so she called work to say she would be late. Was there anyone who could dress out a deer at 2 am? They said Earl Meyer would. Earl pulled up in his orange VW bug and threw it in the front. He made Cat venison sausage from that deer, and they discovered they had a lot in common. They both rode motorcycles: Cat’s was a 1976 R80/7 BMW while Earl had a Yamaha. Cats was a road bike; Earl’s was a crotch rocket. He invited her to try his Yamaha. She applied the throttle she used on the BMW and found herself doing a wheelie around the cul de sac until she made her way to bring the bike back to earth. The whole neighborhood was out in their yards clapping and cheering for this talented biker. Cat peed her pants and learned a valuable throttling lesson. Their longest trip on a motorcycle was to Seattle, WA, stopping to white water raft and trail ride in Montana. Their most fun trips were to Lake Placid, New York, and Loretta and Mooney Lynn’s homestead. We motorcycled with kids in a sidecar with the Huron Valley BMW Owners Club until 1999.

Cat’s life was idyllic until Earl started stroking in 1999 from antiphospholipid antibody syndrome, Sarcoidosis, and multiple genetic anomalies. He survived 18 years after 7 strokes, GI surgeries for adhesions, mitral valve repair, and renal shutdown. Earl was a gregarious and gentle soul, who taught Cat “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.”  He turned his cheek to bullies, and many times, those same men would need something, He would always help, turning bullies into fast friends. Earl was the only person on earth who made Cat laugh so hard, she peed her pants, could not catch her breath, and fall down at the same time. Cat learned not to be jealous of Earl’s time away while helping those in need, as his joy beamed at his return home in solving other’s problems. He lived the spirit of Rotary.

Most Recent Work in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine for 35 years+ 

In August 1987 Cat was hired to support the new Chief of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at UM. Galen Toews was from UTSW and brought a fire in his belly to make the Division great. He hired Cat after ½ hour first interview. Galen was a soft-spoken, persuasive individual who had a great vision for the Division. Under his mentorship, the Division got its first accreditation in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, and grew the Division from ten faculty members to 65. Clinical fellows grew from 9 to 15 and research fellows grew from zero to around 60. The Division grew its NIH training grant and research funding greater than the entire Department of Pathology. NIH tracked our successful funding rate at 98%. Galen taught Cat to believe in herself, to do whatever crazy tasks he delegated, to do it right and on time. He also taught Cat to be resourceful, as she often had to discover who and how to execute new tasks in a time-limited fashion.  Cat became a graphics guru for Principal Investigators while evolving from Macs to PCs. Galen made enemies into collaborators; he could herd cats. Yelling and disagreement stopped once the research funding started to roll in and the value of working together came to light. Cat expects to bring those collaborative skills to grow Rotary today and into the future.