SCARBOROUGH – On Saturday, Dec. 7,, 2019, Patricia Dawn Sweeney, loving Sister and Aunt, passed peacefully at the age of 86.Pat was born on June 21, 1933 in Portland to Adelbert Greeley Sweeney and Ruth Adele (Barker) Sweeney. A career educator, she received her Baccalaureate in 1955 and later her Masters Degree, both from the University of Maine. She served as a physical education teacher, a school administrator, and math teacher. She retired from teaching in 1990 having served the final years of her distinguished career teaching Algebra to troubled students at the Maine Youth Center in South Portland, a job for which she was uniquely suited and highly valued.Pat was a common sense personality who was close with her family, she cared deeply about education and had a passion for adventure. She was the girl in the center of her black and white elementary school class picture with the short cropped hair and the only one wearing glasses, every bit the book worm. She spent quality time with her uncle and famous Riverside CC golfer Clayton Sweeney on the greens. She was a passionate Deering High School and U-Maine Alum, and brought a tenacious advocacy to coaching Maine School Girls sports before the era of Title IX. Pat also sought to enrich the educational lives of incarcerated teens at the Maine Youth Center in her tenure where she not only taught students Algebra, but also introduced them to outdoor activities, such as organic farming, before it was a “thing”, and cross-country skiing at a time when such enrichment opportunity was an exception to the rules.Pat may be best remembered by those who knew her for her under the radar approach to adventure seeking. Whether traveling cross country with her friend Donna Trefrey in a Volkswagen Beetle, cruising the roads of Maine on her motorcycle, skydiving, not once but twice, setting the goal and riding 50 miles on her bicycle for her 50th birthday, trying hot air ballooning, treasure hunting via metal detecting across southern Maine, or piloting her cherished Piper Cherokee from airstrip to airstrip through the sky-ways and by-ways of Maine, she was truly an original and will be sorely missed by all her knew her.Pat was preceded by her father, “Del” and mother, Ruth. She is survived by her brother Warren Sweeney and his wife Sally, sister Sandra (Sweeney) Dedek; several nieces and nephews; grand nieces and nephews; and countless students from her times in the Portland, Fairfield, Rumford, and State Correctional Education system.The family will celebrate her life privately during the spring.Please visit www.jonesrichandbarnes.com to view Pat’s online guestbook.In lieu of flowers,donations may be sent to:Hospice of Southern Maine163 US Route OneScarborough, Me 04074, or the charityof your choice.

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