Katharine G. Sillin, known to all as Kit, 71, of Lexington, Massachusetts died March 2, 2017, surrounded by her loving family.

She was the daughter of the late John P. “Bud” and the late Sue (Sugatt) Shevenell.

Kit was born March 18, 1945, in Dover, New Hampshire and spent her childhood in nearby Durham, near where her father owned a shoe factory. During her senior year of high school in 1963, Kit was a mid-year transfer to Arlington High School in Poughkeepsie, New York. Seated alphabetically for the semester exam just in front of Lee Sillin, she caught his eye and they became high school sweethearts.

In 1967, Kit graduated from Keuka College, with a major in sociology and early childhood education, and married Lee on June 17 of that year. Kit lived in a variety of cities over the following decades, including New Orleans, Milwaukee, but spent time primarily in Syracuse, New York, where she and Lee raised their three children in a rambling seven-bedroom house. During her time in Pasadena, California, Kit served a term as president of the Pasadena Newcomers and also as secretary of the San Marino League. After a brief time in Rochester, New York, she moved to Lexington, Massachusetts in 2009 when Lee became senior staff surgeon and medical director of professional development and simulation at Lahey Clinic.

Kit’s strong faith propelled her to become an active member of churches in every place she settled. She hosted Bible studies, served on missions committees, and accompanied Lee on medical mission trips to Africa. She horrified her in-laws by confidently dragging her three young children, including one not yet walking, to a remote jungle hospital in a small Zairean village for a summer. And, although she did not have medical training, she was unafraid to scrub in to assist in the operating room when the situation required during a month-long trip to Niger. She also treasured her time with good friends during several visits to Harpur Memorial Hospital in Menouf, Egypt.

Anyone who knew Kit envied her ability to see unrealized potential — whether of an old house, an overlooked item in the junk shop, or in a bruised and tender person. She created beautiful spaces and was an expert in the warm art of hospitality, which she offered liberally to all. She loved the coast of Maine, where her parents lived in their later years, and developed deep roots in Boothbay Harbor. When she wasn’t logging thousands of miles in her minivan or SUV, hauling some project or another to her kids’ houses up and down the East Coast, Kit was an avid reader. She could often be found next to a pile of books filled with her tidy, precise margin notes, and it gave her great pleasure to leave a book behind when she visited.

Kit is survived by her husband, Lelan F. Sillin III (Lexington); her son, Peter Sillin and his wife Betsy Tomlinson (Yarmouth, Maine); her daughter, Katie Dull and her husband Dave (Arlington, Virginia); her daughter, Elizabeth Walton and her husband Josh (Moyock, North Carolina); her brothers, John Shevenell (Marlow, United Kingdom) and Tom Shevenell (Hancock, New Hampshire); and her grandchildren, Jack Sillin, Annie Sillin, Charlotte Dull, Lucy Dull, and Knox Walton.

A funeral service was held Tuesday, March 7 at the Carlisle Congregational Church, in Carlisle, Massachusetts. A memorial service will be held in June in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, with details to be determined.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to groups whose work was dear to Kit: Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons (PAACS) CMDA-PAACS, P.O. Box 1118, Bristol, TN 37621 or World Medical Missions Samaritan’s Purse, P.O. Box 3000, Boone, NC 28607. Arrangements under the direction of the Douglass Funeral Home, Lexington. www.douglassfh.com