Kate Tuttle (maiden name: Kate Austin Seeley) was born on July 13, 1849, in Austinburg, Ohio, to Boudinot Seeley, a prominent man in the early iron industry, and his wife. She graduated from Vassar College in 1870 and married Albert Henry Tuttle on August 7, 1873, in Paris, France. They had three children, all born in Ohio: William Buckhout, born on July 3, 1874, in Austinburg; Clara Mary, born on December 19, 1875, in Columbus; and Anna Seeley, born in May 1877 in Columbus. She and her family lived in Charlottesville, Virginia, for many years while her husband was a professor at the University of Virginia. In 1905, she was elected Fifth Vice President of the National Association of College Alumnae, a women's education organization, a subject that she was passionate about for much of her life. Following her husband's retirement, they moved to Alameda County, California, where she died of pneumonia on March 24, 1920. She is buried next to her husband at the University Cemetery in Charlottesville.