Pat was born in Anaconda, Mt. to Mary Agnes and Thomas Gubbins, the youngest of their three children. Before her sixth birthday, her parents died within several months of each other and Pat moved to Butte, Mt to live with relatives. After graduating from Girls Central High School in Butte, Pat moved to Lake Oswego, OR where she graduated from Marylhurst College with a degree in Bio-Chemistry. During her freshman year at Marylhurst, Pat met Art Pieters on a blind date they would both fondly remember for the rest of their lives. Pat and Art married the day after Pat graduated college on June 9, 1951. Art remained the love of Pat’s life through 65 years of marriage.
During the first years of their marriage, Pat and Art lived in Eugene, OR then moved to Portland, OR where they raised their four daughters. In 1964, Pat began her professional career as a medical technologist and laboratory manager at the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland. For the next 6 years, Pat collaborated with research doctors at UOMS in the fields of diabetes and metabolism as well as pediatrics and gynecology. In 1970, when Art had the opportunity to open a new Seattle office for the transportation and meat packing company at which he worked in Portland, Pat and Art moved their family to nearby Bellevue, WA. Once she had her family settled, Pat accepted a position manage laboratories at the University of Washington Medical School in Seattle where she continued to pursue her interest in pediatric research. For the next 15 years, Pat would author several research grants and contribute to the professional development of dozens of medical students as they explored their interest in medical research.
When Art retired in 1984, Pat and Art sold their home in Bellevue, WA and found their bliss on 12 acres of the Cascade Mountains outside Easton, WA. There she and Art built their retirement home by hand, recruiting her daughters and their husbands to, among other things, shingle the roof. Pat finally had enough rooms and wall space in her new home to display the impressive quilts and embroidered art work she created in her “spare time”. Her quilts were each hand stitched, often using geometric designs Art created for her. Each of her daughters had one of Pat’s custom quilts for their bed. And throughout her life, Pat was never far from her knitting needles or her sewing machine. Anyone who ever received a knitted gift from Pat recognized that each sweater, blanket or dress was like wearing a hug. She was an artist using yarn from around the world to create her masterpieces.
Pat loved to play the piano and organ. She directed church choirs at Ascension Parish in Portland and played the organ at several parishes in Bellevue, Anacortes, Burlington and Sedro Woolley. Pat lived her Christian values visiting those in Hospice care and serving as an Extraordinary Eucharistic Minister, and religious education instructor among her many volunteer activities.
Pat and Art were inseparable. It was a great family occasion when they celebrated their 65th wedding Anniversary surround by family and friends at the Creekside Community where they lived for the past 4 years.
Pat was preceded in death by her husband Art, her youngest daughter Nadine; her parents, brother and sister. She is survived by her daughters Judy Hartford (Bob), Lisa Hoehn (Ken), Robin Moeur, and son David Miller (Kristin), 9 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to St Jude’s Medical Center or Gonzaga University.
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