Patricia Ann Dellinger

Our beloved mother was born May 12, 1937 at home in an unincorporated part of LA County called Walnut Park. Her parents, Glynn & Ann and older brother Vern lived in a small house with Ann’s mother Granny. Mom attended Huntington Park schools all the way up to high school. She was in Campfire Girls and enjoyed going to summer camps. As a family they went on camping trips to Yosemite and other parts of the western US. When mom became old enough to drive and needed a car for college, grandpa gave her a car (a ’52 Chevy) only after they completely tore down and rebuilt the engine so she could understand how it worked! Once they flew to Detroit and picked up a new car and made a vacation of driving it home. Younger brother Russ came when she was in college.

Before attending to Santa Barbara State College (now UCSB), mom attended a semester at Compton College, where she met Charles (Chuck) Dellinger — “an old veteran” in English class. Dad had just been released from the US Army, arriving home just in time to start classes on the G.I. Bill. They married on 1/4/1957. After a while in an apartment, they bought their first home on Fidler Avenue in Long Beach, CA and had twin boys there, but only after her doctor delayed telling her she was going to have twins to prevent her from dropping out of college early, where she earned a bachelors in Mathematics. They moved to a new house on Harvard Lane in Seal Beach in January 1966.

Mom was mostly a stay-at-home mom, but for a few years she helped Chuck in his office as he started his Insurance Adjuster business. Mom was always somehow active in her son’s activities, including Twins Mother’s Club, school PTA, and as Treasurer of the twins’ Boy Scout Troop.

Mom and dad loved traveling around the western US, often revisiting favorite places on the way up to Washington to visit some of dad’s relatives. Favs included Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Prairie Creek Redwoods, Mt. Lassen, and many places along the Oregon coast, Olympic National Park, Mt. Rainier, and at least two trips to British Columbia. They usually camped, but sometimes stayed in motels. Mom became an expert in camp cooking, and we never went out to eat while camping. In those days they traveled without prearranged reservations, which let us stay longer in one place or another, or bug out early in case of inclement weather. They went on two trips to Europe — once with Dale and Lian to attend David’s wedding in Denmark, with side trips in Germany, and another time to travel in Norway with David and Myanna.

While David & Dale were in high school mom became interested computer science and started taking classes at Cypress College. After completing all their classes, and in combination with her Math degree, she was hired as an instructor in Cypress College. She worked there about 30 years teaching word processing and database programming (specifically dBase) and running their Business Computer Lab. Mom retired in 2013 and by 2020 she was showing signs of memory loss. When dad passed in July 2020, we realized that mom was having problems taking care of herself. After some searching we moved her into Villa Gardens senior living apartment in Pasadena in August 2021. In December 2023 she entered memory care.

Pat is survived by her sons Dale and David, and her younger brother Russ.