Patrick Arthur Gormley

Mr. Gormley was president of a savings and loan company.

Memorial services are planned at a later date.

Survivors include his wife, Ruth; three sons, Tom of Las Cruces, New Mexico and John and Jamie, both of Grand Junction; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Memorial contributions to St. Mary’s Hospital Foundation, 2635 N. Seventh St., Grand Junction 81501; Avalon Theatre Foundation, P.O. Box 2243, Grand Junction 81502; HopeWest, 3090B N. 12th St., Grand Junction 81506; Riverfront Foundation, P.O. Box 2477, Grand Junction 81502; and Mesa Land Trust, 1006 Main St., Grand Junction 81501.

Patrick A. ""Pat"" Gormley

October 6, 1930 - July 9, 2015

Patrick A. ""Pat"" Gormley passed away peacefully early on July 9, 2015, after a long battle with carcinoid cancer.

Pat was born October 6, 1930, to James S. Gormley and Eunice G. Gormley in Grand Junction, CO. He was a third generation Mesa County native. His parents and sister, Sue Gormley Tomlin, preceded him in death.

Pat grew up at the corner of 1st and Patterson where his parents owned the Cherry Hill Farm. He graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1948 and then attended Colorado College in Colorado Springs, graduating in 1952 Magna Cum Laude and Phi Beta Kappa. It was there he met the love of his life, Ruth Hunt Gormley. Like his parents before him, they sat next to each other in classes and chapel and the rest, they say, is history.

After college he studied administrative law at the University of Nottingham in England on a Fulbright Scholarship. Upon his return from England, he had been accepted and planned to attend Stanford University Law School but received his draft notice. He served in the US Navy as a Minesweeper officer from 1953-1957.

Pat and Ruth were married in 1953. They have three children, Tom (Laurie) of Las Cruces, NM; John (Sue) of Grand Junction, CO, and Jamie of Glade Park, CO; four grandchildren, Matthew, Andrew, and Sarah Gormley, Chris Kaliszewski (Natalie) of Los Angeles, CA, and two great-granddaughters, Frankie and Teddie Kaliszewski.

Pat started work in the Savings and Loan industry with Mesa Federal Savings in 1957. He worked for the same institution, led by his father and grandfather before him, until 1990 serving as President from 1970 to 1990. He was also a licensed Real Estate Broker, Insurance Broker, and Appraiser. He managed numerous downtown properties for longtime Grand Junction families that had moved away. After Mesa Federal closed due to the Savings and Loan crisis, he served as a director and community liaison for American National Bank now ANB Bank until 2007.

Pat was always involved with and drew energy from the Grand Junction community he loved. As a downtown property owner and property manager, he was instrumental in Operation Foresight that renovated downtown Grand Junction and helped organize the Downtown Development Authority. He served on the original Mesa County Economic Development Council and was influential in the renovations of the Avalon Theatre, which he viewed as a tremendous asset to Grand Junction.

Also a founding member of the Colorado Riverfront Commission and Foundation, he was very proud of the trails and parks created along the Colorado River. He was considered by many to be the unofficial historian of Grand Junction and enjoyed working with the Museum of Western Colorado and Mesa County Historical Society. Pat was a member of the Grand Junction Rotary Club for 57 years and greatly enjoyed the camaraderie, bell ringing and community activities of the Club.

He loved his weekly coffee groups where he joined friends to gossip and check the pulse of happenings in Grand Junction. Several cooking clubs with friends were also favorites, including The Cooking Club, the WOGS and the irreverent ""Good Eats"" Group. St. Patrick's Day always called for a party.

Much to the consternation of many of his friends, he was a lifelong democrat, albeit a fiscally conservative one. Many interesting elected officials and candidates for public office sought his counsel and support over the years and enjoyed a little refreshment on the back patio of the family home. He truly enjoyed the political process at all levels and had an unusual capacity to bring people together to resolve problems and move forward with workable solutions to thorny issues.

He was deeply involved with St Mary's Hospital, serving on both the hospital board and later the foundation board from 1977 to 2015. He was also a long time board member of the Bacon Family Foundation and Aspinall Foundation.

Pat had a unique knack for remembering people's names and faces. He was genuinely interested in people, where they lived, to whom they were related and what they did. This allowed him to remember an incredible number of people, a skill we all wish we had inherited.

Above all, he was a devoted husband to Ruth, father to his boys, grandfather and great-grandfather and will be greatly missed. When you see the sheep statues on the corner of 1st and Patterson, remember the gentleman farmer who loved this community, the dignity and grace with which he lived his life, his sense humor and his many friends.

The family would like to thank the nurses and staff at St. Mary's Hospital and HopeWest for taking good care of him during his last few weeks.

Cremation has occurred. A celebration of life will be held at the Avalon Theatre on the afternoon of Friday, August 21, 2015.

If you are so inclined, Pat would appreciate your contribution to one of the many causes he held so dear, such as St. Mary's Hospital Foundation, HopeWest Hospice, the Colorado Riverfront Foundation, the Avalon Foundation, the Mesa Land Trust, the CMU Foundation, the Museum of Western Colorado or the Mesa County Public Library Foundation.

Published in The Daily Sentinel on July 19, 2015