BASEL-STADT, Switzerland – Psalm 90:10 The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

Patricia Parker was born in Washington, D.C. to James Lawson and Eloise Smith Lawson, Oct. 29, 1941, and was raised in the D.C. suburbs of Silver Spring and Takoma Park, Md. with her three younger siblings, Jim, John and LoisAnn. She graduated from Western Maryland College in 1963, and then went to the University of Chicago for a master’s degree. There she met and later married Richard Parker, her husband for 54 years. Their daughter, Anne Elizabeth, was born in 1972.

Pat was raised in an era when girls’ options were careers in nursing or teaching. Pat loved reading, and in the 1960s colleges and universities needed teachers and paid better than in previous decades, so becoming an English professor felt natural. But following a husband’s career path at that time also felt natural, so when her husband entered Harvard Law School, she happily supported him by teaching at Salem State College in Massachusetts. Her career there lasted over 30 years. Of all the students Pat taught at Salem, Emmanuel Maduakor seemed the best and brightest, and before he graduated, she, Dick, and Anne, welcomed him into their fold. He remained a close and loyal, unofficial godson for the rest of their lives. Some of Pat’s colleagues at Salem also became valued friends for the rest of her life.

Dick encouraged Pat’s ambition by facilitating the family move to New York in 1975 so she could complete a doctoral degree at NYU. Pat loved New York City from her first visit, especially the City Ballet, the museums and orchestras and the humanity walking the streets. In 1982, Pat’s Fulbright lectureship took them to Seoul, Korea, which opened the world of Asia to the three of them. In Korea, Pat met Migyeong Park, who became an unofficial god-daughter/lifelong friend and later mother of Pat’s god-grandchildren, Brian and Christine. Pat always loved Korea and the demonstrative affection of its people.

But Dick responded more readily to Japanese culture. They started with Dick’s Fulbright to Sendai, Japan, then later spent two years in Kobe, where Dick taught at Osaka University and Pat at women’s colleges, Kobe Jogakuin and Osaka Jogakuin, and Anne attended Canadian Academy, an international school in Kobe. They returned to the U.S. to keep Anne in American schools, but Dick soon took a permanent position at Hiroshima Shudo University; Pat continued to teach Salem State through Anne’s graduation and then also taught at Hiroshima Shudo for three years. She later taught four more years at Hiroshima Red Cross University before retiring. Their years in Asia provided rich travel opportunities to China, the Philippines, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Macau, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Australia, and New Zealand.

When Pat decided on early retirement from Japan, Anne and her husband, David Bergman, had moved from New York to Portland and were expecting their second child, so Pat sensibly moved there to live near her family, now including grandson Jacob, born in New York in 2002 and Elisheva, born in Portland in 2004. In one hasty weekend before returning to Japan, Pat and Dick had bought a house in Falmouth. Pat greatly valued those retirement years in Falmouth as a happy grammy while the children were young. In 2008, Dick also retired and moved from Hiroshima to Falmouth, relatively close to Dix Island, the family camp where Dick was always happiest. They went often to New York for ballet and music and time with the grandkids.

Pat’s years of teaching in Japanese universities inclined her to seek retirement volunteer activities with international connections. As soon as she retired to Maine she began teaching classes at Portland Adult Education. Immigrants from central Africa were at that time joining Somali immigrants in Portland. Pat’s students at PAE became a meaningful connection for her to the Portland area and some became long term friends.

Pat’s Japan connection also led her to serve on the Maine Aomori Sister State Advisory Council under Governor Baldacci. That led to the creation of the Friends of Aomori, which furthered Maine’ relationship with its sister state in northern Japan, developing student exchanges and exchanges of teachers, artists and interested people who learned about each other’s culture. As board member of Friends of Aomori, Pat helped organize and host delegations between the sister states. She also shared her Japanese interests by teaching a number of Japan-related courses, some together with her husband, at OLLI at USM.

Pat also found a community of like-minded believers in the dignity of every human being at Allen Ave. Unitarian Universalist Church. Pre-pandemic, she liked serving as worker-bee for church stewardship campaigns, helping with plant sales and holiday fairs, and plain old Sunday morning ushering. She especially enjoyed volunteering with Family Promise, offering support to families leaving homeless shelters. She also led book discussions on Japanese literature at various libraries through the Maine Humanities Council and participated for many years in a local book group. She especially loved and found good support from her close friends known to each other as the Wonderful Older Women.

Shortly before Dick died, they left the big house in Falmouth and moved to the Atrium at the Cedars, which provided Pat with a warm, friendly community in her months as widow.

Pat died March 14, 2022, near Basel, Switzerland. She had long ago decided that four score seemed a complete and natural lifetime and planned her final exit at the age of 80. Although some states have provided for medically-assisted death for people with terminal illnesses, there exists no medically-assisted death for those in the U.S. who might enjoy relatively good health but feel weary of life when they have lived enough. She died hoping that the alternatives available in Switzerland might someday open in the United States.

Services will be held at the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church at 524 Allen Avenue, Portland, at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 22. Please go to the church website for pre-registration and/or streaming information: a2u2.org/news/events.

In lieu of flowers,

donations can be made Pat’s honor at the:

Friends of Portland Adult Education (FPAE)

P.O. Box 3185

Portland, ME 04104-3185

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