Patricia Barrett Perkins

patricia perkins

Patricia Barrett Perkins, our beautiful, vibrant, funny, intelligent, creative, caring, adventurous, loving mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, aunt, and grandaunt, passed away on New Year's Day, 2021.  

Born on September 11, 1931 in New York City, she lived in Riverdale with her parents, Robert Burke Barrett and Gabrielle Hisnay Barrett, and her brother, Robert Burke Barrett, Jr., all of whom preceded her in death.  She was a member of the Class of ’49 at The Ethical Culture Fieldston School, and was serving as her Class Secretary at the time of her passing.  She went on to study at Mt. Holyoke College and at Carnegie Mellon University, where she studied in the School of Drama in the College of Fine Arts.  She remained close to friends from her high school and college days for over 70 years.  She did graduate work in philosophy at Columbia University and received her Master's Degree in Education from Johns Hopkins University. 

Pat is survived by her daughter, Katherine Teresa Perkins of Durham, Maine, her son, Owen Mark Perkins, of Denver, Colorado, two grandsons, Benjamin Barrett Civiletti and Robert Moreland Civiletti, a great-grandson Jaxon, a great-granddaughter Kennedy, nephews Michael Barrett, Burke Barrett, Ken Barrett, and Matthew Barrett, her sister-in-law Karen Lucas, cousins once removed Elizabeth Phillips Bourdin and John Phillips, and a number of cousins, grandnephews, and grandnieces.  She was fascinated by her recent forays into family history, and she was excited to find new relatives and long-lost ancestors.   

Pat lived a life that was a declaration of adventure, and her example told her children, her grandkids, her family, and her friends to keep seeking new challenges and to never be satisfied with good enough.  She was never satisfied, in the best way.  

The diversity of her professional career speaks to her fearless spirit, working on stage and off in the New York theater scene, where she formed lifelong friendships and never lost her love of being part of the collaborative effort of the theater that was nurtured at the Nipnichsen Club in Riverdale.    She acted in the esteemed Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and worked as an actress, playwright’s agent, and producer in New York, working with the legendary set designer Jo Mielziner, among others.  She remained active in the theater well into her 80s, appearing in Our Souls at Night (2017) with Robert Redford and Jane Fonda, and performing featured roles in the last two musicals at Clermont Park Senior Living Community – The Sound of Music (2018) and Oklahoma! (2019), where she was back in her element on the stage.

Through her friend and colleague in the theater, director David Wheeler, she met one of David’s best friends from Harvard, Moreland Perkins, Ph.D., a philosopher visiting David in New York.  They fell in love and were married on May 5, 1961.  They followed his work as a philosophy professor to Houghton, Michigan, where their daughter Katherine was born in 1962 and then to Cortland, New York, where their son Owen was born in 1964.  Pat worked as a social worker in Cortland and was an active leader with the League of Women Voters.  

Pat began a 30-year career as a teacher and counselor in the Baltimore City Schools in 1968, teaching elementary and junior high school and passing her passion on to her students.  She created a drama program at every school she went to, and she created a sense of family with her students, many of whom have kept in touch with her for nearly fifty years.  She received multiple grants from the Fund for Educational Excellence and the Maryland State Department of Education to initiate programs like her Peer Counseling Through Drama program and her IDEAS program – Interactive Drama for Elementary Age Students.  

She taught and counseled at Louisa May Alcott, Hampden Elementary, Ashburton, Glenmount, Hamilton, Hazelwood, and Barclay Schools in Baltimore City. When she moved to Colorado and settled into “retirement,” she quickly got a job – in her mid-80s – as a substitute teacher at the Ricks Center for Gifted Children at the University of Denver.  

Pat was also a realtor for over 30 years in Baltimore, working with W. Burton Guy, The Hubble Company, and Chase Fitzgerald Realtors.  Pat often led her firm in sales, but more importantly, she was always forming friendships and bonding everyone whose house she’d ever sold into tight-knit circles of friendship – and, in one prominent case, even sparking the enduring marriage of a couple she brought together. Talk about finding reward in your work!

She continued her lifelong community work in Baltimore while raising her children and working full-time.  She served as the President of the Bryn Mawr Tennis Association, was a board member on the Barclay Community Council, and worked with the Baltimore Educational Scholarship Trust (BEST) to help minority students in Baltimore secure financial aid to attend independent schools in the area.

Pat was published in dozens of books, sharing the joy she found in literature with generations of readers, and she was a tireless census worker and a dedicated volunteer on countless political campaigns, knocking doors, calling voters, and winning over everyone she met.   

She fondly remembered spending summers in the Adirondacks during her youth, and she spent years at Beaver Cove on Moosehead Lake in Maine, raising her family every summer in cabins on the edge of the Maine wilderness, using wood burning stoves and kerosene lamps and pumping water by hand straight out of the lake.  She returned to Moosehead Lake for decades with her children, her mother, her grandchildren, and her friends. 

After retiring from full-time work, Pat traveled on a regular basis, including favorite trips to Ireland and Hungary (the countries of her ancestors), Newfoundland and Labrador, France, Italy, England, Austria, Czechoslovakia, Germany, and Canada.

In addition to sharing all the love she brought into the world, she also taught her family how to give love and care for others when she was vulnerable and needed help – an incredible gift.

You could hear it in her actions every day – Pat sounding the clarion call for us all to be joyful.  It’s hard to think of anyone who had a greater capacity in finding joy than Pat did.  She found it in family and friends, and she would light up at the sight of a new great-granddaughter or grandnephew, in person or virtually.  She found joy in performances and parties, in playwrights and poets, and in the pets she cared deeply for: Silver, Ginger, Piper, Beaver, Boo, Mystery, Gypsy, and Willy. She found joy in good company and in good conversation.    

Pat’s family appreciates all the loving thoughts of the many people Pat touched and loved in her long and incredibly full life. Special thanks to everyone in the Clermont Park community, which has been heroic in supporting and keeping each other safe, and the unbelievable frontline medical people at Denver Health who worked so hard to follow her wishes on her final day and went above and beyond to do everything possible for Pat and our family. 

If you knew Pat, we hope it's not asking too much to carry some of her boundless love of life in your heart.  It's one meaningful way we can make our world a better one.

 

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A “virtual wake” was held for Pat on January 9, 2021, with about 60 friends and family in attendance.  The recording is available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RotON2IWI5E 

 

A virtual memorial service was held for Pat on January 16, 2021 through the Wellshire Presbyterian Church in Denver.  A recording of the service is available at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqDP5x_4AjI 

 

A celebration of her life is planned in Baltimore on her birthday, September 11th.

 

A Facebook tribute page is available for sharing memories, photos, videos, and more at: https://www.facebook.com/Pat-Barrett-Perkins-105333174865757/?ref=page_internal

 

Flowers in Pat’s memory can be sent to:

Concierge, Clermont Park, 2479 S. Clermont St., Denver, CO  80222

 

In lieu of flowers, you may contribute to The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) in Pat’s memory at https://www.facebook.com/donate/1303868066635899/107362457996162/ 

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