Catherine Wood

Catherine Louise Wood was born on May 5, 1948 in Rock Island IL to George McCaw Wood and Margaret Ackerman Wood. Her father being a civil engineer for the Army Corps of Engineers, she grew up in Chillicothe, OH and Ames IA. She graduated from Ames High School in 1966, and was one of the two Presidential Scholars from Iowa that year. She graduated from Macalister College (St. Paul, MN) summa cum laude. She worked at the Mayo Clinic, and later earned her MD-PhD degree from Duke University in 1981.

She married Frank Birinyi in 1983 and they moved to Columbus, where Frank completed his training and Catherine joined the OSU Department of Medicine - Division of Hematology and Oncology. Through Catherine's friend, Frank became aware of a job opening at Mount Carmel. Frank accepted the job, and Meg was born one month later. With Frank working, Catherine changed her career path to that of a fulltime mother.

Although looking elsewhere in Columbus for a home, Catherine was intrigued by a Worthington home advertised as "adjacent to a bike path", since Frank enjoyed bicycling. Just as Catherine had been the initial connection leading to Frank's Mount Carmel job (of 30 years), it was Catherine who found their Worthington home whose neighborhood they have enjoyed for 30 years.

Catherine's greatest joys were supporting Meg's school and outside activities. She particularly enjoyed holidays with visiting family in Chicago, Indianapolis, and Gastonia, NC.

In addition to her husband and daughter Meg (Ryan) Alexis, Catherine is survived by her grandson, Benjamin Alexis; sister, Mary (George) Dorner; nephew, Bill (Colleen) Dorner; and niece, Susan (Daniel) Sullivan; and 2 great nieces and 4 great nephews. She is also survived by stepbrothers, Richard (Barbara) Voorhees and Robert Voorhees.

There will be a memorial service held on Saturday, August 3, 2019 at Worthington United Methodist Church, 600 High Street, Worthington, Ohio 43085. Visitation with the family will be from 2-3pm and the service will begin at 3pm. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Worthington United Methodist Church music fund or children's worship fund.