Published on March 30, 2023

Genealogy, Tae Kwon Do and Sweet Valley High … introducing 1st VP for Membership Cathy Petrini

By Terry Haycock, Secretary/Treasurer

One of our members has written an astonishing 29 books to date!

In the early 1980s, the Sweet Valley High best-selling series was created by Francine Pascal and written by Kate William, a pseudonym for the several scribes who penned the series.

Cathy Petrini wrote many of them.

Later she did the same for another popular series for teenagers (the publisher doesn’t allow revelation of those writers).  

As Catherine M. Petrini, she has written nonfiction books on a variety of subjects for students of third grade through high school age.

Born in Seattle, Washington, Cathy moved frequently as a child because of her father’s career but lived in Virginia more than anywhere else. She received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and a Master of Arts in creative writing from Johns Hopkins University, taking classes at Hopkins’ Washington, D.C., campus.

She worked for newspapers for a short while and then became a magazine editor, first for an association for the geosciences and then for association professionals in the corporate training and human resources field. Later she switched to authoring books full time.

Cathy was introduced to her future husband by two sisters, friends who proclaimed themselves “Jewish matchmakers.” Although she was dating someone else at the time, after that breakup, the ladies were still insisting that Robert Morgan was perfect for her and kept finding excuses to invite the two to the same events and seating them together. 

As time elapsed, Cathy and Robert, who works for the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., were married. They live in Alexandria, Virginia, with their son, Jonathan Morgan Petrini, a music composition student at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

It was taking tae kwon do classes with Jonathan (now a third-degree black belt) where Cathy earned her purple belt. Other favored pastimes include painting kindness rocks and working on her family’s genealogy. She has been able to trace one line of her family back to the 1500s in Italy. This June, while attending a writers’ retreat in Umbria and Tuscany, Cathy will visit the Italian villages her family inhabited. 

Cathy likes to travel but often prefers the ground to the sky. Last summer, her family took a road trip to California to see her father, then traveled around the northern states visiting national parks. She has visited all 50 U.S. states.

“Attending NFPW conferences helped, as they are often held in places that are not major tourist attractions,” she says.

Cathy has been an NFPW member for many years. She has held national offices including secretary, 3rd VP, 2nd VP, at-large communications contest director and Communicator of the Achievement director. She now serves as Director of Fun (Hospitality) and Protocol. As such, she has become known as the funny hat lady; each time she makes a speech or introduces someone at the national conference, she wears a different hat. One time she even wore a constellation skirt that lit up when she twirled!

It was in the 1980s that coworker Susan Butruille introduced her to NFPW and the Capitol Press Women affiliate. Since that time, Cathy has become an active member of Virginia Professional Communicators and currently serves as 1st VP for Membership.

Like most writers, Cathy says, “I love to read almost anything: science fiction, fantasy, general fiction, history, biography, historical fiction and travel books.”

She is the steward of a Little Free Library that sits in front of her house. It looks like a little house on a post and is filled with books. Passersby can take a book and/or leave a book.

She is also a member of BookCrossing, where participants include a sticker in a book explaining the program and leave it anywhere – airport, hotel lobby, university, etc. After reading the book, the reader leaves the book somewhere for a new reader to find and can go to the website to log it as having been “released into the wild.” (For further information, contact https://www.bookcrossing.com/).

Another favorite is Postcrossing, which allows members to send and receive postcards to and from Postcrossers around the globe.

“I’ve amassed a collection of more than 5,000 postcards from all over the world,” says Cathy.

When you meet Cathy, you will enjoy her sense of humor, fun and adventure. We are proud she is a member of the Virginia Professional Communicators.