In Memory of Katherine Ann Sohnn Chester

Obituary

Katherine Ann Sohnn Chester passed peacefully at home on December 30, 2025. She was born June 30, 1946, to Cecelia and Leonard “Bill” Sohnn. A graduate of West Canada Valley High School, Kay earned a Bachelor’s Degree at SUNY Oneonta. It was there that she met her beloved husband, Thomas, whom she married in 1968. 

After college, Kay began teaching for Whitesboro Central Schools (WCS), where she taught English for over 30 years before retiring. After retiring from WCS, she was an instructor at Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC). In addition to her work at WCS and MVCC, she was an instructor in the New York State United Teachers Effective Teaching program and served as faculty in a number of education programs. She was active in the Whitesboro Teachers Association, serving as president, and was a founder of the MVCC Adjuncts union. Kay was fiercely proud of her union work, and her portion of the fight for teachers' rights and equal pay for women.

Outside the classroom, Kay was an avid reader, a book club member, a theater-goer, a film aficionado, a jazz lover, and a life-long learner who was always curious about other people. She enjoyed travelling with her husband, attending baseball games, jazz festivals, and film festivals around the world, as well as trips to Paris, Russia, and southern Africa. 

She is survived by her daughter, Evelyn Chester, and her son-in-law, Timothy Obenshain; her sisters Barbara and Rebecca; as well as siblings-in-law, nieces, nephews, and many beloved friends. She was predeceased by her parents, her sister Josephine, her brother William, and her husband Tom.

Kay chose to donate her remains to science for the instruction of others, as a way to reflect her life’s work as a teacher.

Services will be held Saturday, January 24, 2026, at 10 AM at St. George’s Glenn Dale in Glenn Dale, Maryland, and Saturday, February 14, 2026, at Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral and Cremation in New Hartford, New York, at 11:00 AM with calling hours from 10 - 11 AM.

For online expressions of sympathy go to fwefh.com.