Patricia A. Pownall

Patricia (Pat) A. Pownall; retired teacher, mother, grandmother, and friend; died Monday, October 22, 2012. She was in hospice care in Glen Burnie, MD at the home of her son. She was 77 years old and formerly lived in Kent, OH. Born Patricia (Patty) Anne Lind on March 5, 1935 in Decatur, IL. The only child of parents Elmer and Bernice (Fleck) Lind. She attended Riverside Elementary, Johns Hill Jr. High, and Stephen Decatur HS in Decatur, IL. She graduated in 1953, the fourth generation of her maternal line to graduate from SDHS and was a member of National Honor Society. She went on to collegiate studies at Illinois State Normal where she graduated with honors in 1957 earning a Bachelor's of Education in Home Economics. She was the first in her family to graduate from college. Patricia married George A. Pownall in 1958. The couple lived briefly in Chillocothe, OH; Parma, OH; Champaign, IL; Decatur, IL; and Silver Spring, MD before settling in Kent, OH in 1967. In 1970, she took graduate classes in home economics at Kent State University where she worked full time as a graduate teaching assistant for Dorothy Fruit and ran the child development Nursery School during the summer. In 1972, Pat was hired as a full-time, home economics teacher at Crestwood High School in Mantua, OH. She taught at Crestwood for 23 years retiring in 1995. Patricia raised two children and enjoyed sewing, knitting, cooking, and spending time with her family and friends--particularly her three grandchildren. She was an active member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent since the mid-1970's. In her later years she developed a strong interest in writing and attended creative writing classes at Kent State. She was a participant in the 2009 Giving Voice Program sponsored by The Wick Poetry Center at KSU where she read original pieces of her writing. She is survived by son, G. Bryan Pownall and her daughter-in-law Kathleen Kiernan-Pownall of Glen Burnie, MD; daughter Lesley Anne Pownall Bahr and son-n-law Dana Bahr of Buffalo, MN; and three grandchildren Kristin, Robert and Katelyn Pownall also of Glen Burnie, MD. A memorial service in celebration of Pat's life will be at 10 a.m. November 17, 2012, at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Kent, 228 Gougler AVE, Kent, OH. A private burial will follow at Standing Rock Cemetery in Kent. The family requests donations be made to either The American Cancer Society or The UU Church of Kent in lieu of flowers.