Athletics Alberta is deeply saddened to share the news that Cathy Simpson has passed away. Cathy was a long standing fixture of the Athletics Community in Alberta and will be missed dearly by all who knew her.
Our sincerest condolences go out to Cathy’s family, friends, and all those who knew her and were impacted by her presence in and around the track over the years.
Our thank you to the Athletics Alberta Officials Committee for the following tribute:
On the morning of December 10, 2025, we lost another long-time Track Official with the
death of Cathy Simpson.
Cathy’s introduction to track and field officiating came when she volunteered to help out
at a three-day warm-up event for the athletes who had come to Edmonton to compete at
the 2001 IAAF World Championships. It poured with rain for those three days, but Cathy
was always there, with a smile on her face, and willing to do whatever needed doing.
Even when this involved spending the day squeegeeing the track.
Eighteen months later she attended an introductory clinic and her track and field
officiating career was on its way. She loved to be working on the track, and eventually
became a level 5 umpire, a level 3 track referee and a level 3 starter’s assistant. These
qualifications led to many invitations to officiate at track meets across Canada –
Kamloops, Regina, Saskatoon, Toronto and several cities in Alberta.
Cathy’s first job was at the age of 14 working in an ice cream shop in the Highlands.
After high school, she decided to train as a nurse at Edmonton’s Royal Alexandra
Hospital but, a year or so later, made the hard decision to discontinue in order to help
her parents raise her niece. A backpacking trip through Europe followed several years
with Alberta Government Telephones as a telephone operator.
On her return she applied for a position with the City of Edmonton Transit call room and
worked her way up to a supervisory position. When the City of Edmonton created its
311call centre, Cathy was there to help get it set up and running. Eventually, after about
25 years of working for the City of Edmonton, she moved to Calgary and took up a
position with the Calgary Transit Security Department monitoring their security cameras.
In Calgary, Cathy continued to officiate at that city’s track meets and frequently travelled
north to assist with the meets held in Edmonton. However, a diagnosis of Parkinson
disease in 2018 led to her withdrawal from officiating commitments and in the fall of
2023, she moved to Halifax.
