August 2011
Longtime member and former Southeast Area national vice president Patricia Malloy, F1681, died on June 12, 2011, in Edmond, Oklahoma. She was 80.
Pat was born March 24, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts. It was there that she met her future husband, Jim, at a dry-cleaning plant. A year later, on June 24, 1950, they were married, and proceeded to have five children during the next 10 years.
When their kids were young, the Malloys would rent travel trailers and Dodge motorhomes for family trips. After the fourth rental, they decided to purchase a 1949 Flxible bus, which became a family conversion project. They joined FMCA on June 1, 1967, and became active in Northeast Area chapters, often inviting other members to their house for dinner and to produce chapter newsletters on a hand-crank mimeograph machine. In 1970 they moved to Lakeland, Florida, and became involved in Southeast Area activities.
In the mid-1980s Jim died, but that didn’t stop Pat from enjoying the motorhome lifestyle on her own. After she retired from her middle school principal position in the mid-1990s, she would load up groups of her grandchildren each summer and tour the nation. She also helped her son, Michael, establish the Cardinal Virginians chapter in May 1993, and encouraged two of her grandchildren, Alison and Patrick, to become involved in FMCA’s Teen-Age Travelers (TATs) program.
Pat served as national vice president, Southeast Area, from 1995 to 1999. She was a member of the Convention Committee (1995-1996 and 1998-1999); the Membership/Member Services Committee (1995-1999), serving as chairman from 1997 to 1999; and was chairman of the Youth Activities Committee (1996-1998). She also served on the Nominating Committee (1992-1993), the Constitution and Bylaws Committee (1992-1993), and the Policy and Procedure Committee (1999-2000).
Pat eventually sold her Lakeland home and moved to the Mount Olive Shores RV community in Polk City, Florida, where she was surrounded by friends. In 2003 she moved to Edmond, Oklahoma, but continued to travel on her own through 2007.
Pat is survived by sons James (Ruth), Michael (Esther), and Lawrence (Teresa); daughters Patricia (David Nichols) and Kathleen (Angel Castro); 16 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Memorials in Pat’s name can be made to the First United Methodist Church, 201 W. Main St., Moore, OK 73160, for the construction of a new playground, a project dear to her heart.