Kate Freitas Sherwood ’97

When a young man with a passion for cheerleading wasn’t able to pay his cheer fees, Dougan Sherwood stepped in to help cover the cost. It’s just about the most Kate Sherwood thing he could have done, says Dougan, referencing his wife’s habit of helping kids facing some kind of adversity with direct support. It also felt “very Kate” to help an 18-year-old girl who suddenly became the guardian of her siblings when her mother died. And it was exactly like Kate to help another teenager pay for driving school so that he could get his driver’s license on time.

Each of those students, and dozens more Dougan has come to know, is exactly the kind of student that Kate (Freitas) Sherwood ’97 would have helped. As a school counselor at Londonderry High School, she was one of those staff members who was there for every single kid — “from the valedictorian to the addict, and everyone in between,” according to her husband, and, as so many public school teachers and other staff end up doing, filling in the gaps of what a school can provide and what a particular student might need.

Kate’s humor may have veered toward goofy and silly, says her family, but she was emphatically serious about her passion for doing the right thing and helping others. So when she passed away suddenly of cardiac arrest in February 2021, her devasted loved ones began doing what they thought Kate would want them to: they turned their grief into goodwill. First by decorating their homes and businesses with “kind hearts for Kate” signs in remembrance, and then by creating the Kate Sherwood Foundation, www.katesherwoodfoundation.org, which provides mini grants to those young adults that Kate would notice so often fall through the cracks during their high school years.

“She was increasingly frustrated with what I call the inherent red tape of a school system, and where support ends for some students, and where school staff step in,” says her husband. In fact, one of her last texts was to a teacher about trying to find a way to get groceries for one of their students. Now, Dougan is often the person delivering the checks, gift cards, and other support on behalf of the foundation. “We get to do some good, and the recipient gets to learn a little bit about Kate,” he says.

That disconnect between public-school resources and student-in-crisis needs became a fascination for Kate. It was part of a new direction in her education career; she was enrolled in a doctoral program in education with exactly that focus and was passionate about creating trauma-informed school environments. As a lifelong learner, she has already earned two master’s degrees in education after completing her bachelor’s at UNH in political science.

Dougan and Kate met on the Durham campus, after a semester at Boston University led Kate to transfer to UNH. “I could take you right to the moment, Christensen Hall 2A, and show you the doorway she walked through, when it was love at first sight for me,” recalls Dougan.

But the timing wasn’t right; it would be another four years before they began dating, but still, the timing was off.

“We were madly in love with each other, but we were just too young,” explains Dougan. Several more years would pass before they reconnected in their late 20s, and this time for good. “We were like two old socks, just so comfortable with each other,” he recalls. The couple would go on to have two children, Ben and Henry, and settle in West Newbury, Massachusetts.

What was unique about Kate, say her family and friends, was her ability to make everyone feel they were that comfortable and close to her — and in the most genuine of ways. Remembrances by students at Londonderry High prove the point: One student said Mrs. Sherwood was truly her best friend, another shared that it was Mrs. Sherwood who drove him to look at colleges and got him excited for his future. Assistant Principal Crystal Rich shared with students: “Your smile was infectious, and your positive attitude would always encourage others around you to rise up. You found creative solutions, made lasting connections and when you didn’t know the answer to a problem, you were off on a mission to find it. What was best for our students drove your every move, and you were bravely unapologetic about it.”

That caring part of Kate’s professional life is no surprise to those in her personal life. Her circle of college friends has remained close, able to stave off the usual post-college drift that comes with the milestones of adulthood, says Tasha (Przybyszewski) Benson ’97.

“We all call ourselves ‘forever friends,’ this group that met in 1994 and continued to be in each other’s lives nearly 30 years later,” says Benson, who met Kate sophomore year when both were pledging Alpha Chi Omega. The two would eventually room together at Alpha Chi, and again in Boston after college.

The foundation, say Dougan and Tasha, is a way to continue Kate’s work with students — in a positive way, but with a bitter reminder. “Legacy is a tough word,” says Benson. “I think we feel good about doing things Kate would have done. But all of us wish we didn’t need to; we wish she was still here.”

For Benson, Kate’s memory is found in unusual places. “I tend to remember the little things when I think of our friendship; like how she used to eat the sweet filling out of the whoopie pies my grandmother sent me in care packages during college, leaving behind only mounds of cake. And the fact that she was so beautiful and put-together, but she was pretty much a slob, and our room was a mess,” Benson jokes. “But you could never really be mad at her.”