Patricia J. Hildreth's Obituary
Patricia Hildreth, 81, a San Carlos resident for 75 years, passed peacefully with family by her Sequoia Hospital bedside on December 29, 2016, following a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.Pat is survived by her husband of 62 years, Franklin; sons Michael and his wife Alicia, James and his wife Joanne, and Robert and his wife Tammy; grandchildren Aaron, Daniel, Giovanna and Anthony; as well as her brother Ronald and his wife Suzanne.Patricia was born in San Francisco on September 27, 1935, daughter of Irma and Albert Reginald Stewart. Her family moved to San Carlos in 1939, and Pat attended Central Elementary and Middle School, graduating from junior high school one year early. She attended Sequoia High School in Redwood City, where she would meet while a freshman her eventual husband. Graduated in 1952, Pat moved to Oakland, California that summer to live with a great aunt, completing her first year of college education with straight A’s as an undergraduate student at University of California Berkeley. In what in later years Pat would recall was a very difficult decision, she deferred her undergraduate studies at Berkeley to take an office position at a Redwood City ball bearing manufacturer in an effort to establish a financial foundation for her future.On June 20, 1954, Pat married her high school sweetheart, a marriage for the ages that lasted the rest of her lifetime. Pat and Frank moved to Palo Alto while he attended Graduate School of Business at Stanford. Pat also left her position at the ball bearing company in 1956 to live with her husband after Frank was drafted by the U.S. Army midway through graduate school. Following basic training at Fort Ord in Monterey County, they settled into an apartment in Daly City while both worked in downtown San Francisco. Pat held positions of increasing responsibility while at a subsidiary of the Standard Oil Company until September 1958, when she left to give birth to her first child.Pat focused upon raising her three sons for the next several years. The summers from 1967 through 1979 were spent at Fallen Leaf Lake near South Lake Tahoe, where Pat was active in supporting Frank in his role as Director of the Stanford Sierra Camp. Upon Frank’s retirement in 1979, one of the Camp’s meeting rooms was dedicated in Pat and his honor. Pat was also an active member of the Parent Teacher Association at Britain Acres Elementary School in San Carlos from 1963 through 1975, acting as the organization’s President during the 1968/69 school year. Further, she was a Parent Administrator for the newly formed Eaton Hills 4-H Club in San Carlos, where her sons were active members. Pat was instrumental in helping the club obtain a donation of city-owned land at the west end of Eaton Avenue in San Carlos to establish a new farm for raising livestock and farm animals. By 1978, with only her youngest son remaining at home, Pat decided to re-enter the workforce by first volunteering for an administrative assistant position at San Carlos High School. This volunteer position quickly led Pat to paid employment for more than the next two decades.Pat found her work as Executive Assistant for the Dean of Boys at Carlmont High School in Belmont and, a few years later, for the Assistant Superintendent of the Sequoia Union High School District in Redwood City, both challenging and exciting, with no two days the same. Pat left the school district in 1980 to become Executive Assistant for the Head Administrator at Sequoia Hospital in Redwood City. She retired in November 1999 following 19 years of service at the community hospital.Since her retirement, Pat traveled the world with her husband Frank. She loved both land excursions as well as sailing on luxury cruise ships, and enjoyed visiting over 30 foreign countries in North America, Europe and Northern Africa. She recently had returned from a three week trip to Puerto Vallarta where Pat and Frank owned several weeks each year at a five star timeshare resort. Pat was also an avid fan of the San Francisco Giants, proudly wearing her orange and black at several home games she attended each season since her retirement.Pat will be remembered as a dedicated spouse, a loving mother and an active participant in her community. She also treated each of her daughters-in-law as if they were her own children. Pat’s sense of humor and big smile was present until her final days and will be missed deeply by family and friends alike.A memorial service for Pat will be held on Saturday, January 14, 2017 at Skylawn Funeral Home & Memorial Park in San Mateo. The service is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m.In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you consider a charitable contribution in Pat’s memory to either of the following outstanding organizations:The Parkinson’s Institute 675 Almanor Avenue Sunnyvale, CA 94085 www.thepi.org (800) 786-2958Clinical Center Brain Support Network P.O. Box 7264 Menlo Park, CA 94026 www.brainsupportnetwork.org (650) 814-0848
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