Cathleen "Cathy" Pomeroy

Cathleen “Cathy” Pomeroy, 70, passed away on Easter Sunday, April 20, 2025 at her home in Rathdrum, Idaho.

A celebration of Cathy’s life will be held on Saturday, May 31, 11am at North Summit Church (201 N. Division) in Sandpoint, with refreshments and fellowship to follow.

Cathleen Ann Pulfer was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio to Lewis & Colleen Pulfer on May 14, 1954, the middle sibling to David & Susie / Becky & Danny. An Ohio farm girl surrounded by Border Collie Sheepdogs; she especially loved her pet monkey JoJo (a foreshadowing of her eventual marriage to another monkey called “JonJon” by his mother)! Cathy’s most important and favorite formative memory was of giving her heart to the Lord and accepting Jesus as her Savior at the age of 12!

After graduating from Riverside High School in Degraff in 1972, Cathy felt led by her Lord to attend Warner Pacific College in Portland, OR, where she would meet monkey “JonJon”. After 3 years of persistent wooing by “JonJon” (and despite persistent warnings from all their friends to say “no”), Cathy said “yes” to “JonJon’s” proposal in August of 1975. This was shortly after she had been coronated as Homecoming Queen, making her escort-monkey “JonJon” - “King JonJon”!

Nine months later, Jon & Cathy graduated one after the other, shaking hands with then President Gerald R. Ford, the commencement speaker – with Cathy receiving several departmental awards as well. The next night (May 24, 1976), on that same holy sacred spot, they held hands and exchanged vows to “love, honor and cherish one another, until death do us part.” Cathy also included the “Ruth Vow”, to “Go where you go; Your people will be my people and your God my God,” which was tested several times through the years.

Feeling a call to pastoral ministry together, Jon and Cathy moved back to her home in Ohio, with Jon serving as Associate Pastor in the Sidney First Church of God, while attending Seminary in Anderson, IN. Cathy taught adult GED classes in Anderson, eventually receiving her PHT (“Put Hubby Through”) degree, when Jon received his MDiv.

Assured of the Lord’s calling to accept an opening to pastor Jon’s high-school-years church in Kalispell, Montana, Cathy fulfilled her “Ruth” vow for the first time. While pastoring in Kalispell for 10 years, Cathy was the Christian Education Director for the church, and the Lord miraculously enabled her to conceive and give birth to Joneen Leeann on March 27, 1982- the “One-and-Only Daughter-Dooder-Sweet-Pea-Dood”! – the greatest source of Joy(neen) for both, after the joy of Jesus! Cathy was Joneen’s primary home/preschool and kindergarten teacher, and also taught in the Flathead Christian elementary school she would later attend.

After the 10 years in Kalispell, Cathy once again stayed true to her “Ruth” vow and moved literally half-way around the world to be Missionary Teachers at the American Academy in Nicosia, Cyprus (with Joneen and her black Poodle “Blackie”). While there, Cathy taught in every class level in the Primary department, helped lead a student Bible Club, and along with Jon, plant a new church called New Life Fellowship – which is still flourishing to this day!

Due to various factors, after 6 years Jon & Cathy felt led to return to the US, especially with Jon’s father, Warren Pomeroy, dealing with a terminal illness. Upon his death in January of 1998, Jon answered the call to follow his dad as pastor of the Sandpoint Church of God, with Cathy once again being faithful to her “Ruth vow”. Desiring to provide a continuing faith-based education for Joneen, they worked with like-minded parents to establish Faith Christian Academy, the first non-public High School in Sandpoint, where they shared administrative and teaching duties until Joneen graduated in 2001.

In addition to her various ministry positions in the church – including serving as Associate Pastor for a season - Cathy also taught in the St. Francis Preschool & Kindergarten, and volunteered for several non-profit ministries - including Life Choices Pregnancy Crisis Center, IdaHope Families, and Sweet Magnolia Freedom House for women.

In her later years Cathy adopted Acts 17:28 as her life motto: “For in Him we live and move and have our being.” She also desired that that be true for everyone she knew and loved. But above all, Cathy had a deep heart for the down-and-out, and the homeless. After providing temporary lodging for over 50 people in the church, parsonage, garage and RV’s on the lot, and hosting Love INC (In the Name of Christ) in the church for several years until it closed, the church decided to establish a new ministry named Helping Hands Healing Hearts (a joint ministry of 20 area churches), which offers material, mental, emotional and spiritual help to those in need. While Jon & Cathy began as Co-Directors, Cathy eventually became the Executive Director, following Jon’s retirement as pastor. During this time, the Lord placed a dream in her heart to build a homeless transition center called The Good Samaritan Inn, a great need in the community. Though she wasn’t able to see the dream fulfilled before she celebrated Resurrection Sunday on April 20,2025 in the ultimate way, she was the key instrument God used to begin the process, which is well on the way to fulfillment.

Cathy was preceded in death by her parents Lewis & Colleen and niece Chrissy in Ohio, and is survived by her husband Jon and daughter Joneen (with her husband Giovani Gentilini and his parents, all of Rathdrum, ID), as well as her 4 siblings in Ohio (David & wife Janie Pulfer; Susie & husband Dan Schindewolf; Becky & husband Rick Purtee; and brother Danny Pulfer), with numerous nieces and nephews and their families on both sides!

With her deep faith in Jesus giving us the assurance of her eternal reward, we now celebrate the fact that she is finally where she has longed to be, and is now reunited with many loved ones gone before, and has received the crown that coronates her as “Queen Cathy” forever, by the One-And-Only King Jesus! As such, she is also now a part of that “Great Cloud of Witnesses”, who are watching over us, encouraging and praying us on, until we rejoin her and others forever rejoicing and worshipping before the Throne of the Lamb!!!

In lieu of flowers or other gifts, all memorial’s may be given to Helping Hands Healing Hearts for the Good Samaritan Inn – helping to fulfill Cathy’s dream. Donations may be made directly on line by going to www.gsi7b.org and click on Giving, or checks may be sent to HHHH, 530 Pine St., Sandpoint, ID 83864, designated to GSI. Thank you and God bless you!!!