Greensburg teacher ‘made you feel like the most important person in the room’
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Ryan Soisson never had his mother as a teacher in school.
But he isn’t sure it would have mattered.
“She was a great teacher all the time,” he said.
Kathryn N. Soisson of Greensburg died Thursday, Jan. 31, 2019. She was 52 years old.
Mrs. Soisson was born July 12, 1966, in Pittsburgh, daughter of Arthur H. and Anne (Nolan) Green of Greensburg. She graduated from Gateway High School in Monroeville,\ and earned her bachelor’s degree at the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown, where she met Paul, her husband of 25 years.
“I met her the first day of orientation. My roommate fell in love with her immediately, but he was afraid to go and meet her,” Paul said. “I dragged him over to introduce him, and she and I became friends through college.”
After they graduated, Mrs. Soisson got a teaching job in Gaithersburg, Md., while Paul began working in the next town over, Rockville.
“I would always get a card from her on my birthday,” he said. “We started dating a couple years after college. Our first date was at the Tin Angel on Mt. Washington, which is also where we got engaged.”
Paul said her teaching career began before she even got her degree.
“She always thought that teaching was her calling,” Paul said. “Even when she was a lifeguard at Edgewood Country Club, she was teaching kids how to swim.”
Mrs. Soisson began her teaching career in Montgomery County, Md., before moving to Philadelphia and eventually back to Western Pennsylvania, where she accepted a teaching position at West Point Elementary in the Hempfield Area School District.
Mrs. Soisson was an excellent swimmer and regularly ran to train for local 5K races.
Once she had a son and daughter, however, “we became her number-one hobby,” Ryan said.
“She was there for everything. She’d take days off to come to my games, and she was always very supportive of us and our interests,” he said.
Mrs. Soisson also enjoyed traveling with her family.
“Every year, we took a different vacation, and she loved sightseeing,” Ryan said.
Mrs. Soisson would make regular trips to Long Beach Island in New Jersey.
“That was the best time of her year,” Paul said. “She loved the beach and said she really felt God’s presence at the ocean.”
Both Paul and Ryan said Mrs. Soisson had a way of making everyone feel special.
“My mom would walk up to you, even if she didn’t know you, and start asking questions about you,” Ryan said.
Paul said his wife’s background as a teacher was likely a part of her personable nature.
“If you met Kathy, you felt like she had all her focus on you and made you feel like the most important person in the room,” he said. “She really had a gift that way.”
Mrs. Soisson is survived by her husband Paul, her children Ryan and Anna, her parents Arthur H. and Anne (Nolan) Green, of Greensburg; her Aunt Nannie; her sisters, Mary Beth (Curt) Siverling, of Chester Springs, and Ellen (Craig) Liberatore, of Greensburg; as well as her numerous loving in-laws and 19 adoring nieces and nephews.
A 10 a.m. funeral service will be Monday at St. Vincent Basilica Parish, 300 Fraser Purchase Road in Latrobe, with interment to follow at St. Vincent Cemetery.
Memorial donations can be sent to either the Sisters of St. Joseph, 1020 W. State St., Baden, PA 15005 or the Delaware Foundation Reaching Citizens With Cognitive Disabilities, 640 Plaza Drive, Newark, DE 19702.
Patrick Varine is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Patrick at 724-850-2862, pvarine@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MurrysvilleStar.