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Patricia S. Brown Establishing a Student Study Lounge in Honor of Dr. Brown Dr. Brown passed away on Saturday, November 13, 2004. A memorial service was held at the Siena College Chapel on November 20, 2004. One of the speakers was Dr. Andrea Worthington. Her remarks about how much Pat meant to our Department are reproduced below.
If we could imagine that the on-going development of the biology department is like a giant loom which holds a weaving or a tapestry, many of my colleagues expressed that Pat laid down the warp, the foundation threads on which the fabric of the department grew. These foundation threads are: A passion for teaching A genuine wonder and curiosity about the natural world An engagement with the natural world through her intellect A warrior's energy when needed to create change and make things happen And a compassion and love directed at her students and colleagues and friends. I am going to shower you with stories given to me by my colleagues and from my own experience that will illustrate the magnificence of this woman and the expression of these foundation threads in the life of the biology department. Pat joined George Bazinet, Ed LaRow and Tom Whalen in the biology department in 1969 and George remembers Tom saying to her "How can someone so young know so much?" All of us who joined the department since have expressed that she was a mentor in the early development of their teaching career. Jim Angstadt told me that when he first arrived at Siena she was his target, the ideal that he worked towards as he figured out how to become a teacher. Nina Zanetti and I had the privilege of co-teaching with her early in our careers. Neither Nina nor I want to whitewash the experience; teaching with her could be overwhelming at times. She would dream up so much stuff. assignments, activities, investigations; her creativity in teaching was non-stop. She often remarked, "I had better be careful not to designed a course so marvelous that I can't stand to teach it." Watching her teach, talking to her about teaching, made us all think about things that impact teaching beyond content and process: the personalities of the students and their lives, what the students needed, the psychology of teaching. She mentored the junior faculty just as she mentored her students, by example and with concern and compassion. John Hayden told me that she always put the teaching mission of the department first; first and foremost came doing what was best for the students as a teacher in the classroom and a leader in the dept. We have all met the warrior in Pat in various ways. Ken Helm remembers going snow shoeing with Pat January 1994. Here she was 2 months from her first surgery still healing her chest and arm and she beat him up the hill behind their house, leaving Ken far below. He actually said to me, "She kicked my ass." A warrior is brave. She entered Siena as the first female professor in the sciences. George said he had had a female PhD advisor and a female post doc advisor yet Pat made him aware as never before of the plight of women in science and the obstacles that they overcome. In all her years at Siena, Pat behaved as a professional above reproach while fighting the resistance to women in science. And a warrior has a battle plan. I remember how she rallied the department and led us from complaining about some problem to acting. First she would speak to each of us individually and solicit a consensus; then she assign each of us a data gathering mission, finally we would invite the dean, the Vice-president of Academic Affairs, the Vice-president of Finance and the president at that time to meet with us. Instead of impassioned speeches, we would clobber the administration with data and our singleness of purpose and things would get done. Jim has kept a whole folder of such meetings whether the issues was funding for laboratory teaching, enrollment, recruiting, or hiring. Now a delightful thing to do on a spring day is to visit a pond with breeding frogs. Pat would enjoy this herself but more importantly, she would lead over 100 first year students in hip boots out to a pond, year after year, to admire the fecundity of nature in spring and to collect frog eggs from their natal environment. The eggs would be brought to the General Biology laboratory and students would explore what it means to be an embryo developing in water. The engagement with the natural world through her intellect was reflected in her research and in her teaching and in her artwork. Salamanders, frogs, young rats and finally the natural history of a disease yielded their secrets to her. Pat's wonder at the natural world is also reflected in the hymns and poems that she chose for us today. Two former students, who graduated a decade apart, told me this week, using nearly the same words, "I owe everything I am and I have done in my life to her." Another, who graduated 2 decades after them, e-mailed me to say, "Dr. Brown was the best Siena had to offer." I have witnessed in my 22 years at Siena how Pat could draw the most amazing things out of students: from the greatest achievements to the most personal confessions. She set high standards in the classroom and with her energy, compassion, and enthusiasm; she swept the students to those heights. Tom Whalen put it beautifully, "Pat's teaching is not ended. Three decades of students have carried with them the delight in knowledge Pat conveyed to them." Pat brought profound intellect, thought and heart to all her work, her play, her relationships whether it was understanding the path of women in science, research on water balance in amphibians, battling a disease, raising a family, or creating a beautiful photograph or a garden. Her life reflected such an interesting and unique balance of a pursuit of the life of the mind and a thorough curiosity of life and the human condition. She was our compass, the warp of our loom. We will miss her but the foundation threads are laid and cannot be pull from the fabric of the biology department, her students or her colleagues.
Biology Department |
I
want to welcome everyone: family, friends, colleagues, students, and
members of the Siena community, in this remembrance of Pat Brown and say
that I am honored that I was asked by Pat and her family to speak on
behalf of the biology department. Pat was my colleague, my mentor and my
friend. This past week, many of my colleagues have shared with me their
remembrances of Pat and their gratitude for the influence she had on their
lives and careers.