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Katharine ChaseJune 23, 1960 - June 14, 2021
Kate Chase, age 60, passed away peacefully after a five-year journey with cancer, at home in San Francisco, California.
Kate was raised in Cheshire, Massachusetts, and graduated from Hoosac Valley High School in 1978. After briefly attending community college, Kate's sense of adventure took her west where she made Los Angeles her home. Kate became active in the art and photography worlds and started working for a photo retouching business, Wild Studios. After several years and roles with the company, her keen instincts led her into a studio manager position. In 1995, she moved north to open the San Francisco office of Wild Studios.
After working with and for many different members of the photographic art and production communities, she formed Kate Chase Presents, and as a successful businessperson she continued to create the relationships she would cultivate for the rest of her life. Kate Chase Presents brought together all of her professional energies, and put them into representing the artists in which she had incredible faith. In recent years, Kate was excited to channel the wisdom she had gathered through her work into becoming a mentor and coach within her industry.
Always taking the time to understand how vision could lead to production, Kate worked with artists on connecting their work and their passion, drawing out their best artistic, professional, and human selves. Over War is one project she was particularly proud of, in which she brought to life in words and photographs the stories of twenty-seven F-105 Thunderchief fighter pilots, among them her uncle Ed Skowron. Kate also worked her undeniable magic and innovation to send her father Wilbur Chase to the 2015 Minneapolis Senior Games, spreading the word through her many channels and a GoFundMe page—taking a dream and making it happen. Kate did this in every avenue of her life; she knew how to make every person she met feel special and inspired, and was a champion for those she loved in both her professional and personal lives.
In 2001, Kate met her husband and her destiny, Ray Bair, and they married in September of 2003. They continued to build a life in San Francisco, where they opened Ray's specialty foods store, Cheese Plus. Together Kate and Ray worked hard doing what they loved, supporting each other's businesses and blending their creative and culinary worlds. They also shared a love of travel, and especially enjoyed finding new places in Europe to explore. Kate had an unending curiosity about life, and was dedicated to the important work of listening and asking questions, which she never stopped doing.
In addition to her husband Ray, Kate is survived by her parents Katharine and Wilbur Chase of North Fort Myers, Florida; her sister Leslie Soha of Brooklyn, New York; her brother Edward Chase and his wife Marianne of Mansfield, MA; her nephew Chase Soha, his partner Kristen Lohwasser, and their son and Kate's great-nephew Finn Soha; and her niece Alexandria Chase of Mansfield, MA.
Kate cared deeply about the needs of the elderly, and in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly, at littlebrothers.org.
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