Patricia Margaret Crossley

Patricia was born in West London, England to Ivy and Jack. Both her parents worked and the family shared a house with her grandmother. During the London Blitz in World War Two, they narrowly escaped death when their house was destroyed.

Patricia excelled academically and won a scholarship to a prestigious private girls’ high school at age 11. She was a top student, active in sports and became an accomplished ice-dancer. From age 14, she spent her summers in France with a French ‘pen-pal’. Fluent in French and a Francophile, her university studies’ choice was obvious.

Patricia attended Southampton University and graduated with First-Class Honours (French Major) in 1959. While there, she participated fully in student life, studied German in addition to French, and met her future husband, Rod.

After graduation, Patricia opted for a teaching career and took a position at a girls’ boarding school in the resort town of Swanage, where she taught French and German. Shortly before her marriage, however, she moved to Portsmouth to teach French and Latin in Havant. Rod’s graduate studies in the Bedford area saw Patricia working in a non-academic school where she taught whatever she was asked to teach, including needlework. Remarkably, she persuaded the school principal to allow her to introduce Beginners’ French, a great success. Rod graduated and Patrica eagerly agreed to his recruitment by a Montreal company in 1964.

Patricia loved cosmopolitan Montreal, and as a linguist she became intrigued by the local French dialect and accent spoken by all her neighbours. She found work with a local School Board and enjoyed teaching French to anglophones at Chomedey Polyvalent High School. Forever adventurous, when Rod received a Philadelphia U.S.A. job offer two years later, they did not hesitate to accept. Due to Pennsylvania employment laws however, Patricia was unable to work and because of the many social problems at the time, Patricia and Rod returned to Montreal after two years.

Patricia was successful at everything she attempted. She was rehired by the School Board in Montreal and was promoted to Department Head, then Second-Language Consultant and then as a school principal, where she implemented the School Board’s first French Immersion program. She would also head the Board’s first French first-language school. By this time Patricia had three children and had earned an M.A. in French from McGill University.

Patricia and Rod enjoyed experiencing different cultures and it was with family agreement some years later that she accepted the position as principal of a Canadian Forces Europe elementary school near Baden-Baden in Southern Germany, where she administered a 3-track French, English, Immersion program. She enjoyed the collegial bilingual atmosphere, meeting staff from every province, and practicing German with local people. Repeated Loan-of-Service extensions gave her 5 years to enjoy the work, the locale, her beloved France across the Rhine, plus vacations in numerous other countries.

After their return to Montreal the couple felt restless, so sought work in Vancouver and moved there after Patricia was hired by the Vancouver School Board in 1988. She initially administered Hastings Elementary, an immersion school boasting a highly multicultural student population, then after a few years she was reassigned to L’ Ecole Bilingue, from which she retired. During weekends and vacations, Patricia relaxed and wrote several published novels at their Keats Island cottage. She enjoyed island life, made friends among the cottagers and at one point organized the first Island Fishing Derby - for which she designed a colourful T-shirt.

Four years after retiring to Victoria, Patricia served as a volunteer in Kenya with the Canadian Harambee Education Society (CHES). She selected deserving girls to receive scholarships, attended to CHES students’ welfare and monitored the girls’ performance. Later, she started her own charitable organization, Tembo-Kenya, spending 6 months a year in Kenya for 16 years on various projects. As Education Secretary for the local Kenyan Anglican Diocese, Patricia strived to stop corporal punishment in 50+ Diocesan schools by teaching a positive discipline program (the Virtues Project) to teachers and priests. The Provincial Governor endorsed teaching the Virtues Project throughout the regional schools, resulting in reduced violence. Through Rotary Club funding, she introduced fun ways of improving student literacy, improved girls’ school attendance and financed community well/composting toilet projects. She was the first Virtues Project Master Facilitator in Kenya, where she taught other facilitators, police, nurses and communities. In addition, and at the invitation of the Botswana Government, she introduced the Virtues program to public servants there. Finally, Patricia even learnt enough Swahili to bargain with locals in the markets!

Undoubtedly, Kenya became part of Patricia’s DNA. Indeed, her work there resulted in her being awarded the Governor General’s Meritorious Service Medal (M.S.M.) in 2017. Patricia continued to champion projects in Kenya after her visiting days were over. She was still mentoring Virtues Facilitators in four African countries by Zoom in August and raising funds for another well project up until early 2024. That community plans to name the well in her honour.

Her work in the U.K, Canada, Germany and Kenya touched thousands of lives for the better and she is mourned by many on three continents. The world became a better place thanks to her presence.

Patricia was predeceased by her parents, Jack and Ivy. She is survived by her husband, Rod; her children Alison (Chris), Paul (Suzanne), Matthew (Laurie); and grandchildren Elijah, Maryn, and Desmond. The family thanks all the medical personnel who cared for her during her illness at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, Hospice and at home.

A funeral service will be held on 13 March 2024 at 2:00 p.m. at Christ Church Cathedral in Victoria. In lieu of flowers, please consider supporting Patricia’s latest Kenya well project by visiting the Rotary Club of Victoria-Saanich secure web page: https://rotaryvictoria.square.site, and selecting “Other” to donate.