Catherine “Cathy” Goodwin Rinzel, 79, of Garrett Park MD passed away on May 13, 2026 at Suburban Hospital in Bethesda MD. Cathy was born on October 31, 1946. She grew up in Oak Ridge, Tennessee and attended Middle Tennessee State University (1964-1967), studying sociology. While on a semester break, she met John Rinzel, who was working in Oak Ridge as a co-op student from the University of Florida. They married June 3, 1967. For the next 59 years Cathy and John were living, studying, working and raising a family, while back and forth in either New York City or in a Maryland suburb of Washington DC. Cathy completed her bachelor’s degree and master’s in education (1989) at the University of Maryland, College Park, MD. As an elementary school counselor (1989-2006) in Montgomery County Public Schools, Cathy was effective and highly regarded by colleagues, students and parents. She was loving and supportive as partner to John, as mother to Michael and Mark, as mother-in-law to Liz Arnold and Mandy Rinzel, and as grandmother to Malcolm, Jesse, Lola, Julius and Stanley. She will be dearly missed.