RIP    4.19.2009

CATHERINE M. VOYTKO (b. 1923), former aide to the late Congressman Daniel J. Flood; a pioneer in data processing systems in the 1960s; and an active promoter of Slovak culture and history, died Sunday, April 19, 2009, at the Geisinger Medical Center in Danville.  She was 86 years old and resided in Conyngham, PA.

Ms. Voytko was born in Humboldt, the daughter of the late Michael and Anna (Vantuch) Voytko, who were Slovakian immigrants to the U.S. in the waning years of the 19^th Century.  She graduated from Slovak Girls Academy (later, Saint Cyril Academy), Danville, PA, in 1941 and subsequently attended Wilkes College and the American University in Washington, DC.

In 1942, Miss Voytko moved to the Nation’s Capital to work as a secretary in the U.S. War Department.  After the War, she continued to work for the U.S. government at the Veterans Administration and the National Production Authority.  In 1952, she joined the staff of the Legislative Department, U.S. Library of Congress, as an editor of the East European Accessions Index, a monthly compilation of articles by leading thinkers in countries then dominated by the former Soviet Union.  From 1959-1961, she was an editor for the Nuclear Data Project of the National Academy of Sciences National Research Council.

In 1961, Ms. Voytko became Managing Editor of the Science Citation Index, published by the Institute for Scientific Information in Philadelphia.  The Index was a pioneering effort in the use of nascent computer technology to collect and organize large bodies of published scientific research for easy access by scientists and scholars.  The Index used data processing methods to cross-reference scientific articles in a manner that anticipated today’s internet technology.

Ms. Voytko returned to Washington, DC in 1967 as a staff assistant to Rep. Daniel J. Flood (D-PA), a position she held until 1978; she then served as office manager for Rep. Peter A. Kostmayer (D-PA), before retiring from U.S. government service in 1982.

While in Washington, Ms. Voytko was a volunteer in the national office of John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign and later served on the Fairfax, VA, Democratic Committee.

A Conyngham resident since 1985, Ms. Voytko devoted considerable time and effort to developing a collection of Slovak history and culture at the Jankola Slovak Library and Museum at Villa Sacred Heart in Danville, which was directed by her younger sister, Sr. M. Mercedes Voytko, SSCM.

Ms. Voytko was an active member of the Slovak Catholic Federation, the Slovak Heritage Society of Northeastern Pennsylvania, and the Hazleton Area Center for Slavic Studies.  She was a member of St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Hazleton, PA.

Ms. Voytko is preceded in death by her sisters, Mary Voytko Kowalczyk and Anne B. Voytko, and by her brothers, Michael, Joseph, George, Paul, and Leo.  In addition to her sister, Sister M. Mercedes, SSCM, she is survived by numerous loving nieces and nephews.