ORFORD — Catherine Butman Eastburn would sit in a folding chair at Lower Baker Pond’s boat launch in Orford and watch the loons for hours at a time.

As a community science observer for the New Hampshire Loon Preservation Committee and an amateur wildlife photographer, Eastburn’s role was to observe the pairs of mating loons on Lower and Upper Baker Ponds. The nonprofit organization, created in 1975 and based in Moultonborough, uses volunteers to help monitor and take a census of the New Hampshire loon population.

Lesley Butman, Eastburn’s oldest sister, called her the “Loon Lady” and the “Loon Ranger.”

“We’re fortunate at the Loon Preservation Committee to work with lots of volunteers, but I can’t think of a better example than Cathy Eastburn in how invested in the place and the wildlife she got,” John Cooley, senior biologist with the organization, said in an interview. “She was our champion on those lakes for loons.”

Eastburn died unexpectedly on Nov. 29 from complications relating to a genetic heart condition. She was 56.

Eastburn had a deep love of animals that spread beyond her loon advocacy work. She had a knack for caring for humans as well.

Throughout her childhood in Lyme, the family was constantly rescuing animals. “Over the years I counted, we had 30 cats,” Eastburn’s mother, Suzanne Butman, said.

She was the second of Suzanne and Herbert Butman’s three daughters.

An avid wildlife photographer, she photographed moose, bear, eagles and ducks. “She was always in the right place at the right time,” Fairlee resident Ann Green, a friend, said.

Eastburn was deeply involved in the Orford and Fairlee communities. She served as the unofficial photographer for Rivendell Academy in Orford, taking pictures at graduations, proms and sporting events.

She knit mittens for community members and pashmina scarves for her sisters. Eastburn and her sister Lesley participated in the soup supper every March to raise money for Orford’s libraries. Eastburn baked cookies as a fundraiser for a free summer concert series in Orford.

“She would do anything for anybody, period,” said her husband, Jim.

Each year for the Orford and Fairlee Fourth of July parades, Eastburn and her sister built elaborate floats with themes ranging from Alice in Wonderland to nursery rhymes.

One year, Eastburn dressed as Elvis Presley, her sister as Ace Frehley and their mother as Elton John.

Another year, she made a half-tentacle mask as part of the “Pirates of the Caribbean” float.

“She made these great masks,” Lesley said. “She thought she wasn’t artistic, but she really was.”

For one parade, Lesley Butman played Little Bo Peep and her sister dressed up as a milk carton that had posters for missing sheep glued on. “She had a great sense of humor,” Lesley said.

Eastburn met her future husband at Lyme’s Dowd Country Inn, where she was helping cater a wedding. Jim happened to be the best man. The two got to talking.

Eastburn learned Jim was in the Army, stationed in Fort Bragg, N.C. She told him that he could send her a Christmas card.

“And so when I got back to Fort Bragg, I sent her a Christmas card, and I sent her one every day until Christmas,” Jim said.

For the first year they were together, Jim drove 14 hours on weekends from North Carolina to see her. The couple planned to move to Colorado, where his family was located. But after he retired from the military, they found a place in Lyme, near her parents, before settling in Orford.

They were married for 30 years. “She was my soulmate,” Jim said.

The Eastburns had two children, Joshua and Madelyn. Cathy acted as the second mother for her husband’s two youngest daughters from his first marriage, Amanda and Renee.

A stay-at-home mom, Eastburn was family-oriented. She lived half a mile from Lesley and their mother.

She spoke with her youngest sister, Elizabeth Levins, nearly every day.

“She just was always there to take care of me,” Levins said.

The family loved birthdays and holidays. Eastburn dressed up every Halloween and went trick-or-treating in full costume with her children. “She believed in a birthday week,” her mother said.

Eastburn’s caring ways touched both humans and animals. It was during the pandemic in 2021 that Eastburn began observing the loons on the pond three times a day — before breakfast, after lunch, and after dinner.

Camera in hand, she assisted the Loon Preservation Committee with chick rescues when the ponds froze over and helped set up nest rafts.

“I didn’t know the extent she was involved; it was like her little secret that she was doing all these (loon) rescues,” said Tami Dowd, who was Eastburn’s best friend growing up.

Eastburn worked with Camp Pemigewassett, the summer camp on Lower Baker Pond, to make sure water skiing activities didn’t encroaching on loon nests.

“I realized this summer driving through there that the physical landscape (of lower and upper Baker ponds) has completely changed for me now,” said Cooley, the biologist with the New Hampshire Loon Preservation Committee. “I associate it so much with (Eastburn’s) warmth and her humor.”

Ulla-Britt Libre can be reached at ulla-britt.p.li bre.25@dartmouth.edu.