Catherine Ann TOFT

TOFT, CAVANAUGH

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 12/18/2011 at 01:00:28

October 11, 1950 — December 2, 2011

Catherine Ann Toft passed away on Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, at her mother’s home in Woodland, as a consequence of non-smoker’s lung cancer. She was 61. She was born on Oct. 11, 1950, in Des Moines, Iowa, the first of four children of Thomas and Mary Toft, and lived in Davis since 1976. In childhood she had lived in various places in the U.S. (Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois, Ohio and New Jersey), as well Europe, South and Central America and Asia, where she graduated from high school at the American School in Japan in 1968. She had a bachelor’s degree in fisheries and wildlife biology from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. in population biology from Princeton, and carried out her career as a professor of evolution and ecology at UC Davis, from where she retired in 2010. Over her time at UCD, her research was published in various prestigious journals, and she also authored on a major work on parrots. In addition to her professional work, she was also deeply involved in various charitable causes, such the promotion of the environment, and collie rescue, especially in the resolution of animal hoarding cases, where she worked tirelessly to provide care and find new homes for abused animals.

Cathy is survived by her mother; her sister Nancee Toft; her brother and sister-in-law Tom and Eilien Toft; and her brother, sister-in-law, nephew and niece Charlie, Carolyn, Dane and Sadie Cavanaugh Toft. She was preceded in death by her father, his parents of Belmond, Iowa, and her mother’s parents of Moravia, Iowa.

The family will have a private service for her cremated remains. They ask that any well-wishes be expressed in the form of donations to your favorite charity in Cathy’s name.

Davis Enterprise - Davis, California
December 8, 2011