Patricia Reynolds

Patricia’s five-year battle with frontotemperal dementia and ALS, with the added insult of pneumonia at the end — all of it proved to be too much for her gentle soul, and despite the valiant fight she waged, the end came inevitably, yet peacefully, on Jan. 2. She was 67. Born in Portland to Jack W. and Vera C. Reynolds, she was educated in Portland schools: Brooklyn Grade School and Cleveland High School, from which she graduated in 1963. Shortly thereafter she started working at US Bank, eventually becoming a secretary to a senior vice president in the bank’s investment department. But along the way, something else besides banking caught her interest, and that was food service. This prompted her to seek more schooling and so she enrolled at Portland State University. But a visit to the Home Economics Department of Oregon State University opened her up to new horizons, and after one year at PSU she left the bank in 1970 and transferred to OSU, choosing to major in foods and nutrition. While pursuing her degree, she put her secretarial skills to work and obtained part-time employment in OSU’s Soil Science Department. Her determination to succeed finally paid off and netted her Bachelor of Science degree in 1973. She graduated with honors. From Corvallis, she then pursued graduate study in food science and enrolled on a fellowship at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University to obtain her Master of Science degree. After receiving it in 1975, she then chose to pursue further study at University of Illinois, where she completed her doctorate in foods and nutrition, receiving that degree in 1980. It was back to the West Coast with her newly-minted Ph.D. in hand. She worked as a research scientist for Irvine, Calif.-based McGaw Laboratories. But when McGaw downsized, Patricia pulled up stakes in 1984 and headed east once more, this time landing in Columbus, Ohio, where she gained employment at Ross Laboratories, a division of Chicago-based Abbott Labs, a major pharmaceutical company. Over the nearly 20 years she spent at Ross, she rose through the ranks, eventually reaching the position of senior research scientist, where she was involved as a team member on product development of many well-known nutrition products. Along the way, her product development and research work brought her numerous patents and produced a variety of publications in technical nutritional journals. But work wasn’t everything for Patricia. She never missed her daily swim and she enjoyed her vacations, hiking in our neighbor to the north, seeing the great outdoors of Canada up close and personal from Alberta’s majestic Canadian Rockies in the west to Newfoundland and Cape Breton Island’s rugged coastline in the east. The United States also had its appeal. From the canyon lands of New Mexico to the Hudson River Valley of upstate New York, from the islands off the Georgia coast to California’s rugged Sierra Nevada, Patricia found joy in many wild places. Another activity that brought her joy was turning out mouth-watering gems from her kitchen, especially when the holidays rolled around. Christmas cookies and candies of all shapes and sizes came pouring out of her oven, along with other baked goods and treats for friends and family throughout the year. The same precision she applied in product development in the workplace guided her hand in her kitchen, helping her to become a great cook. When Patricia retired from Ross in 2003, she and her husband once again hit the road, returning west to the starting point of her journey, back to Corvallis. Both of Patricia’s parents are deceased. She is survived by her husband of 28 years, Mike Camillo of Corvallis; her brother, Jack Reynolds of Bloomington, Ind.; and numerous nieces and nephews. Patricia’s final two years were spent at Corvallis Manor and her family would like to extend a special note of appreciation to the staff at the Manor, all of whom deserve to be called “angels” for the exemplary care they gave to Patricia in her time of need, making sure that music, her great joy, always was part of her day. Private burial will take place at Oak Lawn Memorial Park.

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Patricia Reynolds

July 22, 1945 - January 2, 2013