Catherine Cameron

Catherine Cameron was a Canadian-born American psychologist, professor, author, activist, and hymn writer. Born Catherine Cameron Bonnell in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1927, she was the daughter of Presbyterian minister John Sutherland Bonnell, who later served the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. Her childhood included years in Canada and New York, and she returned to Canada for college at McMaster University. She later studied at the University of Southern California, earning graduate degrees that led into counseling, sociology, and social psychology.

Cameron joined the faculty of La Verne College, now the University of La Verne, in 1971. She taught family and social psychology, later became a full professor and department chair, and remained there for more than two decades. Her professional interests included family relationships, women's roles, trauma, and social responsibility. Her book Resolving Childhood Trauma grew from long-term work with women seeking recovery from childhood sexual abuse, and her public life also included advocacy for women and participation in social-justice causes.

Poetry and hymn singing had interested her since childhood. Her family obituary records two published hymns, and hymnological sources identify God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens and O Christ, Who Came to Share Our Human Life among her sacred texts. Her hymn writing is notable for bringing modern intellectual and social questions into congregational prayer without abandoning biblical creation theology or Christian vocation.

After a long academic and writing career, Cameron lived in Claremont, California. She died there in 2019. Her broader legacy joins social psychology, education, advocacy, and hymnody in a life consistently concerned with human dignity, responsible creativity, and the relationship between faith and the contemporary world.