Obituary of
Mary Cathleen Schanzer
1952 – 2025
Dr. Mary Cathleen “Cathy” Schanzer, age 73, of Athens PA, died Wednesday evening, June 4, 2025, at home, in the arms of her husband, Tom Lewis, after a 27-month battle with Glioblastoma. Cathy is survived by her husband Tom, their eight children Patrick, Robyn, Angie, Robert, Michael, Brian, Mary and Daniel, and their families including 19 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. Cathy was the third of eight children born to Luke and Ernestine Schanzer of Hitchcock Texas.
Cathy loved life and loved being a wife, a mother, a doctor and a friend. She had a brilliant forty-year career as an ophthalmologist, performing many thousands of eye surgeries in Houston TX, Memphis TN, and Sayre PA. She also had an extraordinary passion for mission work in Africa, where she performed over 10,000 eye operations and established a permanent eye clinic in the remote village of Serabu, Sierra Leone. Cathy’s mission work expanded beyond eye care to provide food, water, education, and community activities for culture, sports and faith sharing, to underserved, poverty-stricken people of West Africa. Cathy’s dream of mission work in Africa began when she was in the third grade and became a reality with her first mission expedition in 1988. During her 37 years of mission work, millions of lives have been impacted and Southern Eye Clinic of Serabu continues to be one of the busiest eye clinics in West Africa.
Cathy’s driving force for her zest of life was her love of God and her desire to be the serving arms of Jesus Christ. Cathy received numerous national and international humanitarian recognition awards for her mission work, including Catholic Doctor of the Year in 2024. She had a strong and studied faith, and maintained an active presence in the Catholic Church as a daily communicant, a Dame of Magisterial Grace of the Sovereign Order of Malta, a Lady of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem, a Third Order Dominican Associate, a member of numerous leadership committees for her church diocese and her church parish, and served as a Eucharistic Minister at Sunday Mass. She suffered greatly during her bout with brain cancer and offered all of her suffering as a prayer intention for her family and friends, that they may grow closer to Jesus Christ and His Church.
Cathy will be buried at Subiaco Abbey, a Benedictine Monastery in Arkansas. Memorial Services for Cathy in Sayre PA include a community Rosary service on June 24th at 6 PM at Lowery-Urban Funeral Home (225 S Main, Athens PA), followed by prayers and Mass on June 25th, beginning at 2 PM at Church of the Epiphany (304 S Elmer Ave, Sayre PA). Additional Memorial Services will be held in Nashville TN, Memphis TN, Hitchcock TX, Irving TX, Subiaco AK, and Serabu Sierra Leone. For more information consult the website: Serabu.com.
Cathy’s family requests mission donations in lieu of flowers. Please send donations to: Southern Eye Institute, P.O. Box 771317, Memphis TN, 38177. Southern Eye Institute is a 501C3 Charity Organization.
Next Mission Trip to Serabu, Sierra Leone, West Africa,
June 2025
For More Information Text or Call Tom Lewis at 901-569-3939.
Text-to-donate: Text Serabu to 44-321.
Our Mission
Dr. Schanzer dreamed of being a medical missionary since her childhood days when she first heard a Marynoll priest describe his missionary adventures. Her dreams were first realized in 1988 when she and her husband, Tom traveled to Nigeria. Over the years, Cathy and Tom have also worked in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Sierra Leone.
Become a Sponsor. Get Involved.
Southern Eye Institute is committed to performing God’s work among the sick and needy people in Serabu, Sierra Leone. Through prayer and financial contributions, you help provide sight, food and LIFE to those who would otherwise go without. The impact of any donation goes beyond one person. You’re impacting entire families, communities, and generations. Please help us in our quest to fight the good fight. We never have, and never will be able to do it without your help. Every donation is tax deductible.
What We Do
In late 2005, for several months Tom supervised the renovation of a donated block building, adding water well based water systems, generator electricity, patient examination areas, an optical 
dispensary and a modern operating theatre, complete with state of the art technology equipment and air conditioning, something virtually unheard of in the Bush but necessary for the high-tech equipment. Serabu was to be a modern eye care and surgical center.
On Cathy’s birthday, January 7, 2006 Southern Eye Clinic of Serabu was dedicated which included a day and night of celebrations.
Today, Southern Eye Clinic of Serabu is open year round, providing diagnostic examinations, medicines, eye glasses and modern eye surgery free of charge to all patients. It is not uncommon for patients to walk several days to reach Serabu for their eye care needs. Upwards of a 100 clinic patients and 30 surgical patients per day is typical when Cathy and Tom are in Serabu. A Staff of 30 full time employees keeps the clinic operational, allows the Clinic operations to include 10 satellite clinics in nearby villages and supports numerous community development projects.
This joint effort of Cathy and Tom with Catholic Mission continues to be a huge success for the needy people of Sierra Leone. Catholic Mission contributed the land and building, while Cathy and Tom provide all the financial support. They established Southern Eye Institute in order to raise financial support for the Clinic.
Mission Stats:
Serving Africa Since 1988
Annual Surgeries performed
beds in volunteer house
annual meals served
Mission Trips Completed
annual patients served
community water wells
employees
stations in computer center
