Mary Catherine (Mary Kay) Poppenberg

Mary Catherine (Mary Kay) Poppenberg passed away on June 26th, 2025, at the age of 85 from the effects of vascular dementia. Mary Kay had been fighting the disease for the past two years and succumbed rapidly after the passing of her husband of 63 years, Oliver L. Poppenberg, Sr., just 33 days beforehand.

Mary Kay was born in Buffalo, NY on December 31st, 1939, to her parents Louise and Alphonse Pepe. She was raised there with her older brother Paul and her younger sister Patricia. Her namesake was her mother’s oldest sister Catherine Caputo Cetola.

Mary Kay graduated from Daeman University in Buffalo with a BA in English Language and Literature. She continued her professional studies at the University of Pittsburgh, the Penn State University, and the University of California at Berkley.  She was also a graduate of the Leadership Pittsburgh program Year III.

Mary Kay met her beloved husband, Ollie, at Crystal Beach, Ontario where he was a lifeguard, only to discover that they grew up within blocks of each other in Buffalo. Mary Kay and Ollie were married in 1961 and have four children: Oliver Jr. of Sewickley, Kate (Pigman) of Sewickley, Tricia (Genovese) of King of Prussia, and Karen Louise (Fay) of Newtown Square. She was a proud mother to her children as well as her children-in-law (respectively): Janette, Paul, John and Erik. She adored her eight grandchildren: Olivia, Julia, Sophia, Emma, Jack, Ellie, Eva and Hanna, as well as her great-granddaughter Poppy.

After marrying, Mary Kay and Ollie lived in Buffalo, Mt. Lebanon, Franklin, and finally settled in the Sewickley area in 1979. Mary Kay’s professional career began at a time when women were just beginning to assume leadership roles in the workplace. She started by writing for Business Week magazine, and next, founding and managing MPM productions, an innovative culinary and sports product marketing company with her business partner, Marlene Parrish. Additionally, Mary Kay held executive leadership positions as the Director of the Carnegie Museums as well as the President and CEO of the Greater Pittsburgh Office of Promotion. She founded the Pittsburgh Film Office and was a key figure in bringing the Hollywood film industry to Pittsburgh. Some of the films produced during this period include “The Silence of the Lambs,” “Hoffa,” “Lorenzo’s Oil,” and “Striking Distance.” For the next twelve years she served as the Executive Vice-President of Chatham University. Her efforts helped Chatham secure significant foundation and corporate funding for new initiatives and capital projects including the largest corporate gift in its history.

After her retirement from Chatham in 2004, Mary Kay developed an independent consulting business which provided fundraising, management, and board development counsel to the leadership of nonprofit organizations, foundations, and educational institutions in western Pennsylvania including The Children’s Institute, the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy, the Laughlin Children’s Center and the Richard King Mellon Foundation. The last position of her long influential career before retiring for a second time was Executive Director of the Jannetta Neuroscience Foundation.

Mary Kay also served on several Pittsburgh boards in the arts and culture space, including the Society for Contemporary Crafts, Phipps Conservatory, the Performing Arts of Children, and the Sewickley Garden Club.

To cap her career, in 2014 the YWCA of Pittsburgh praised Mary Kay during its “Tribute to Women Leadership Awards” Luncheon, emphasizing the importance of leading the charge for societal change. Recognizing trailblazing efforts to eliminate racism and empower women, the 32nd annual event drove home the significance of helping improve the lives of women and children throughout the Pittsburgh community. During the event Mary Kay was honored with the Allerton Lifetime Achievement award. Upon receiving the award she stated, “When you start looking at the women you've affected through your leadership, you really start to appreciate the support you've given them.”

Outside of her career and family, Mary Kay dedicated much of her time to baking and cooking, always treating loved ones to delicious pies and pasta dishes to complement her husband’s main courses in their home. In the 1970s she also co-authored several cookbooks and co-created the original pasta drying rack featured on the cover of Williams Sonoma in what free time she had, we will never know.

Mary Kay, along with Ollie, were world travelers and visited too many countries to list, making friends everywhere they went. Mary Kay was a relentlessly determined, focused, and driven woman whose presence will be deeply missed by her family, friends, colleagues, and so many other loved ones.

A funeral mass will be held at St. James Catholic Church on Friday, July 18th at 10:30 AM followed by a celebration of her life at the Edgeworth Club in Sewickley. The internment of Mary Kay and Ollie’s ashes at Sewickley Cemetery will be a private family event.

In lieu of flowers, please donate in her honor to any of the non-profits mentioned above.