Patricia Louise Green

Patricia Louise Clark was born in Portland on December 13, 1930 to Clifford and Bessie Clark. She attended Irvington Elementary, and in 1949 she graduated from Grant High School, where she was active in Job’s Daughters. She studied home economics education at Oregon State College, where she joined Pi Beta Phi and met her future husband Harry Green. With his military service looming in 1953, they married that March, expecting he would enter the Air Force immediately after graduation. However, with the signing of an armistice a few weeks later, he avoided Korea and was assigned to Norton Air Force Base in San Bernardino. He served as a communications officer, and Pat used her training to teach home economics and personal finance classes at the community college. Their first two children, Jim and Becky, were born in the base hospital.

After his service obligation was fulfilled in 1955, Harry joined Pacific Telephone in Portland, and they purchased a fine old house in Laurelhurst, where Pat had plenty of opportunity to employ her skills as a mother and homemaker. She had been a member of First Christian Church since her teens, and the family became active there. Pat was one of the founding members of the Home Economics in Homemaking club (HEIH). She was also active in AAUW and Eastern Star. With two children to raise, plus daughters Sally and Peggy, who joined the family in the next few years, she proved beyond any doubt that she was a superb mother and a fabulous wife.

In 1965 the first of a rapid series of moves occurred when Harry was transferred to Pendleton as the plant manager. They joined the Pendleton First Christian Church, participated in numerous community activities, and made many friends during their short stay there. In 1967 Harry was transferred to Pacific Northwest Bell headquarters in Seattle. They bought a home in Normandy Park, and lived there for less than two years before the next transfer to Salem where he served a year on loan to Tom McCall’s Management 70s Task Force. Halfway through their stay in Salem, daughter Kristy was born. Six months later, their nomadic life ended with a final transfer to Portland and the purchase of the family home in Cedar Hills. Their children variously attended Cedar Hills Elementary and Cedar Park Middle schools, with all ultimately graduating from Sunset High before attending college and eventually marrying. Sally Nelson died of multiple sclerosis in 2012. The others are still well. Jim lives in Alaska but is moving back soon, Becky Wolfsturm lives in Roseburg. Peggy Denfeld and Kristy Brady both live in Hillsboro.

Back in Portland with all the kids still in school, Pat still had plenty of mothering to accomplish. She rejoined First Christian and HEIH. They transferred their membership to Cedar Hills Christian Church, where Pat was elected chair of the board and later treasurer after the church relocated and was renamed as Murray Hills Christian Church. Her crowning achievement was her membership in PEO, where she served in several offices in her chapter AK. In 1988 she was elected to the PEO State Board and progressed through the offices to president in 1994. Pat and Harry enjoyed travel immensely, visiting all fifty states, all the continents but Antarctica, and many of the major countries of Europe, Asia, and South America. They also enjoyed many weekends at their beach house in the Roads End district of Lincoln City.

Reaching maturity at a time when many women were competing for success in the corporate world, Pat kept her eye firmly fixed on the flourishing life she planned for herself. She left the earth with her fondest dreams realized; one of those unique women who are admired and respected by everyone they encounter. In later years, as her memory began to fail and she gradually succumbed to the ravages of dementia, her activities gradually diminished, but she retained a lively interest in life, friends, and family until the last. She was preceded in death by her parents, sister Mary Fuhrman and brothers Ron and Jerry Clark. She is survived by her husband Harry Green, sister Bonnie Kuhnau, four children, nine grandchildren, and ten great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be held at Murray Hills Christian Church after the pandemic subsides. Remembrances can be made in Pat’s name to the church or the Alzheimer’s Association.

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