Editorial page cartoonist Kathryn Wood of VBT introduces herself

Kathryn Wood of Van Buren Township became the new editorial page cartoonist for the Independent shortly after the death of former cartoonist Bob Mytych on Aug. 19.
Kathryn said she inherited an interest in the newspaper business dating back to the 1930s. Her father could write and draw from the time he could hold a pencil. She said he was a very talented man.
“I remember in the early 1960s going to downtown Detroit with him on a Sunday to a big, old building. No one else was around. I couldn’t tell you now where it was or what publication, but there was this big open room with a huge machine that ran off copies of newspapers.
“To my recollection, and I was very young, he was there checking on something. He has many writing positions, mostly in Detroit and Dearborn, as well as in World War II. I treasure some drawings he did while stationed in New Guinea. His political cartoons were as good as in any New York paper.”
Kathryn’s mother was the switchboard operator at the old Wayne Eagle office in the 1940s. Her stepdad co-owned the Belleville Enterprise back in the day.
She said her brother got the journalist gene and was involved with the John Glenn High School newspaper and yearbook and later as a teacher, writing and contributing articles for the Wayne/Westland School District newsletters and papers.
“I leaned more towards music and art,” Kathryn said. She said she started band in sixth grade and continued through high school. She also played in the orchestra at Western Michigan University. But, art was her favorite subject.
High school offered art classes and she took as many as time allowed.
“I was always going to be an art teacher,” she said, but one year into the art program at WMU, she learned Michigan was cutting back on gymnastics, music, and art teachers.
“With blinders on and no one to really guide me and say, ‘Hey, Stupid… get your degree anyway and you can do anything in the arts!’ I abandoned the college scene and life went on.”
Kathryn said in later years she became a certified activity director working in nursing homes and assisted livings in Ann Arbor – and they all had memory care.
“I could write so many wonderful stories about residents I’ve had the pleasure to assist,” she said.
“Providing art and music of all kinds was not only an enlightening experience for me but it keeps people in that setting engaged and socializing.”
She also was a longtime member of the Alzheimer’s Association Great Lakes Chapter and a Family Support group facilitator.
She currently serves as recording secretary for the Belleville Council for the Arts and is active in the group’s activities.
Kathryn said she has never let go of what she loves, which is mostly painting in oils and watercolors.
“I like to enter shows and have sold a few pieces over the years, but it’s really for my own amusement,” she said.
“I am very grateful for this opportunity to contribute in the Independent.”