Patricia Adele Petrich

April 1, 1923 - November 3, 2018

Pat was born in Ogden, Utah on Easter Sunday, April 1st, 1923. Her parents were Frank and Hazel McIntyre. Frank operated a photography studio in Ogden. In her youth Pat was noted for her ability to walk on her hands and for her love of animals. As she grew older she became determined to get a job so that she would be able to have a horse of her own. She enrolled in a business college where she learned typing and shorthand and soon was able to make her dream a reality, buying a horse named Starwing. In the years following WW2, Pat worked as a secretary at Hill Air Force Base. While there, she met and married Claire Witbeck, an aircraft inspector. Their son Michael was born in 1951. She was left a widow in 1953 when her husband died of heart failure related to childhood rheumatic fever. Four years later Pat married Tom Petrich, an ironworker and orchardist. Their daughter Linda was born in 1959. The family lived for several years on the Petrich family farm. After her second marriage ended in the 1964, Pat continued working as a single mom and held a number of secretarial and clerical positions. The worst job, she told us, was a position in the typing pool of a large organization. The problem was not too much work, but too little. She was very bored but couldn’t show it because her bosses demanded that employees had to look busy at all times. Eventually she went to work for the Utah DOT. After she retired from her position as an office manager there, she found out that the office had been forced to hire two people to handle the workload that she had managed on her own. For many years Pat led a small Course of Miracles study group at her home in Ogden and later attended group meetings in Corvallis. She was also interested in the writings of Paramahansa Yogananda and enjoyed attending meetings of the Corvallis Self-Realization Fellowship. She is survived by her daughter, Linda Churchyard and her son, Michael Witbeck (Eve Chambers), both of Corvallis. Contributions in honor of Pat can be made to the Oregon State Library for the Blind or to Gentle Giants Draft Horse Rescue.