Phares Patty 2016

Patty Phares



Hanover College in Indiana, 1966-1970.

University of Florida, 1970-1972 and 1975-1977: Grad school in math and statistics.



Peace Corps in Samoa (then Western Samoa), 1972-1974: Math teacher in a village junior high school.  Surprisingly, a member of a later ORHS class was in my group.  (I had never known her before.)



In 1977 I started working for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) in Galveston, TX.  In 1979 I transferred to Miami, where I still live.  I worked for 29 years supporting assessments of fish stocks.  



In 2007 I was weary of sitting in a chair and looking at a computer screen all day, so I retired early.  My main activities are now with several environmental and nature-related groups (especially the Florida Native Plant Society) and the Returned Peace Corps Volunteers organization, singing in a community chorus, and trying to keep up with my yard full of native plants.  Travel … some (last year to Haiti and Cuba).



Now I spend a lot of time sitting in a chair and looking at a computer screen -- as a volunteer instead of getting paid for it.  (Not really what I had in mind for retirement.)



I regularly visited my mom in Oak Ridge until she passed away in 2014.  Since then, I have made many trips back to clear out the house where she lived for 60 years, where I grew up (still on the market), and to visit my brother in Knoxville.



I recently became reacquainted with my very first childhood friend who moved to Kingston before we started kindergarten (also a friend of another ORHS ’66 member!)  It’s nice to still have connections to East Tennessee, not just memories.



I was born a few hours after my mother arrived in Oak Ridge in 1948, and I think it will always feel like one of my homes.
Posted By: NS Administrator - 03-22-2016
Views: 1646