Mattilou (Sexton) Catchpole was born on October 31, 1923 to Floyd Sexton and Nancy Garred Sexton in Chicago, Illinois and grew up in Texarkana, Arkansas. Catchpole attended Madison College (formerly the Nashville Agricultural Normal Institute) in Nashville, Tennessee and and University of Tennessee School of Nursing. She served briefly in the Army Air Force as a medical technician from 1945-1946, after which she attended the Charity School of Nursing in New Orleans, Louisiana to earn her RN in 1948.

Catchpole then moved to Cleveland, Ohio. She attended the University Hospital School for Nurse Anesthetists to become a Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA). Between 1954 and 1978 she worked variously at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation Hospital as part/full time nurse anesthetist, clinical supervisor. While in Ohio, she attended Case Western Reserve University, graduating with her B.S. with majors in Chemistry and Biology and her M.S. in Biology with postgraduate work in Biochemistry and Chemistry. Between 1970 and 1978 Catchpole taught the Chemistry of Physics and Anesthesia at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation School for Nurse Anesthesia.

In 1978 Catchpole joined Sangamon State University as an Associate Professor in the School of Health and Human Services and later the Director of the Nurse Anesthesia Program. She attended Southern Illinois University during this time, receiving her Ph.D in Health Education in 1983. When the Nurse Anesthesia Program was discontinued in 1991 Catchpole joined the School of Liberal Arts and Sciences as an Associate Professor in Women’s Studies. In 1995 she was granted the status of Professor Emeritus.

Throughout her career, Mattilou Catchpole was active in professional, community, and volunteer organizations. She served in leading roles in the Illinois Association of Nurse Anesthetists (IANA), American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, the Women’s Health Committee of the YMCA, and the Illinois Nurse Association. She served as chair of the Friends of Lincoln Library Board from 1990-1991, co-chair of the Coalition to Improve Medical Aid to Battered Women from 1990-1992, board member of the League of Women Voters from 1992-1996, and board member of the Rotary Club of Springfield from 1996-1998. Catchpole was a member of the Steering Committee of Health Volunteers Overseas/Nurse Anesthetists Overseas, and served as co-director of the Anesthesia Program at Malago Hospital in Kampala, Uganda (1994-1996) and in Asmara, Eritrea (1995-1997), and director of the Anesthesia Program in Georgetown, Guyana, South America (1997-2000).

Catchpole was honored as CRNA of the Year by the Illinois Association of Nurse Anesthetists in 1990 and Volunteer of the Year by the Rotary Club of Springfield for 1995-1996. She received the first Naomi B. Lynn Award for Outstanding Contribution to Women at UIS in 1997 and the Charlotte Danstrom Women of Achievement Award by the Women in Management of Springfield in 1998. In 2006, Catchpole was one of 18 recipients of the President’s Call to Service Awards for her more than 5,000 service hours with Health Volunteers Overseas and in 2007 she was honored with the American Red Cross Education Hero Award.

Catchpole married Kenneth Daryl Catchpole in Cleveland on June 14, 1951, with whom she had three children. Her husband passed away on January 24, 2004. Mattilou Catchpole passed away on March 24, 2012 in Mineral Ridge, Ohio.