Patricia (Pat) Hart passed away March 30th, 2016 at the age of 82. Born in Boston, MA, on September 6, 1933, and raised in Andover, she was the daughter of L. Denis Peterkin and Faith Kenniston Peterkin. She attended Northfield Mount Hermon School, Wheaton College, and later graduated from Simmons College with a degree in Journalism. She married Douglas Hart in 1954 with whom she had four children. The family lived for a time in Chicago, Ill, Breda, The Netherlands and Toronto, Canada, before eventually settling in Fairfield, CT.

Pat was an inspiration to all who knew her. Born with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye disease, she gradually lost her sight and was blind by the time she was 40. She never let her handicap stand in her way. In 1974, her vision failing and recently divorced, Pat decided to return to school to pursue her life long love of music. Already an accomplished classical guitarist and teacher, she attended the University of Bridgeport to earn her degree in Music Education. By the time she finished in 1976, she had taught herself to read Braille and acquired her first Seeing Eye dog, Gilda. She also discovered that there were little recourses for blind musicians trying to get a degree and decided to embark on a mission to provide a music program for the visually impaired.

The University of Bridgeport offered Pat space to launch her program and so in 1977, The Music Foundation for the Visually Handicapped was opened, with 60 students and a full curriculum. It wasn’t long before people with other disabilities asked if they could come participate in the program, and so the expansion began. When someone asked if they could take art lessons, Pat found an art teacher. When a child showed interest in sculpture, she added a sculpture teacher. Now that the program was expanding beyond music and just the visually impaired, the name was changed to The Music and Art Center for the Handicapped (MACH), to include all the visual and performing arts. The dance program really took off when the legendary dancer Alvin Ailey offered the services of his famed dance center in New York to train teachers for a dance program for blind children in public schools. The relationship with Ailey grew and resulted in the hugely successful New Visions Dance program, which along with the Summer Ailey Camp, continues to this day. MACH became known nationally for its Summer Institute for Blind College-bound Musicians, which gave blind students heading to college as music majors the unique skills they would need to succeed and the opportunity to experience living in a campus setting.

One of the final accomplishments in her twenty-plus-year tenure was to establish the National Resource Center for Blind Musicians, which shares the expertise gained from teaching Braille music and computer technology with students, teachers and parents around the world. Pat received numerous accolades and awards including the Jefferson Award, Associated Press’ Best Feature Program Award, YWCA Salute to Women Award, an honorary Doctorate in Music Education by the University of Bridgeport, declared a President George H. W. Bush “Point of Light”, and carried the Olympic torch for the 1996 Atlanta Games.

The school she had founded, now called Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County, is today a comprehensive school of the arts providing opportunities in music, dance, theater and visual arts for more than 1600 children and youth throughout the city of Bridgeport and beyond.

After her retirement as executive director in 1998, Pat moved to Brunswick, Maine, where she re-married, took up weaving, practiced Buddhism, and became a practitioner of Reiki therapy. Pat continued her public service as a board member of the IRIS Foundation in Portland, Maine, and continued to play classical guitar.

Pat is survived by her loving family including her recent husband Leonard Burt; her children; Andy and his wife Storey of Montclair, NJ, Barry and his wife Abbe of Larchmont NY, Diana of Maplewood, NJ and Dave and his wife Ellen of Stamford, Ct. as well as 11 grandchildren; and her most precious companion and guide dog, Glory.

A memorial celebration is being planned for September 2016, in Bridgeport CT.

To make a donation in her honor go to: www.PatHartEndowment.org. Checks can be made out and sent to: Neighborhood Studios of Fairfield County, Memo: Pat Hart Endowment Fund, 391 East Washington Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06608.