Dr. Patricia Anne Rose Ph.D.

She was born in Brockton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. W.B. Rose, but moved with her family to Florida as a child and grew up in Clearwater, Florida where she attended public school, was a May Queen in middle school, a High school cheerleader and an outstanding student.

She won a competitive State scholarship and entered what was then Florida State College for Women, earning her AB in 1950 from FSU. While at FSU she worked at the downtown Dutch Kitchen waiting tables, was president of her sorority, Alpha Delta Pi, and was inducted into two academic honoraries, Phi Kappa Phi and most notably, Phi Beta Kappa.

After three years of teaching fifth and six grades in Marianna and Jacksonville, she returned to FSU and obtained her M.A. in comparative literature while teaching freshman English as a graduate assistant.

Art History was her secondary subject for her M.A. and she became so interested she devoted an extra year to taking classes in the Art Department, believing an understanding of the fundamentals of those skills was essential to being a good teacher of Art History. She accepted a position as an assistant curator in the Oberlin College Museum and during her seven years there obtained a second M.A in Art History.

She then took a job at Stanford University as an instructor in Art History and she worked in their Museum as well. While there she was awarded one of only 50 Danforth grants given in the entire country to pursue her Ph.D. studies at a University of her choice. She chose Columbia University, doing much of her research overseas, and received her Ph.D. in 1973. She returned to her beloved FSU and taught Art History for 30 years and served as the chair of the department for 17 years, retiring in 2002.

Pat was an award-winning teacher, a beloved chairman, and a fierce defender and supporter of all the fine arts. She was a true Renaissance person, versed in several languages, a lover of all things classical: music, literature, art, dance, theater, etc. and she shared that passion with generations of students who found her office door always open, as well as her pocketbook if they needed help. Some of her happiest times were when she was teaching in Florence at the FSU study center there, reveling in being among all the treasures she had taught about and loved.

Because her sister and her husband also lived in Tallahassee where he, too, was on the faculty she was able to be an integral part of the Smith household. She was a devoted sister and beloved aunt to her nephew and nieces, helping build their mountain house in North Carolina, willingly babysitting the kids for weeks even though she couldn't boil water, a constant corrector of their grammar, but their greatest champion and most generous gift giver. She was brilliant, funny, stubborn, and a beautiful writer and editor, insisting on correct grammar not just in her own student's papers but even editing some of her brother in law's Ph.D. students work.

Whether something cost a king's ransom or a few pennies was never the criterion she used to judge its value. She taught us all to see the beauty that is in everything around us and her legacy will live on in the lives of so many grateful students, friends, and mostly her family.

She was predeceased by her parents, her aunts, and her nephew, James H (Jimbo) Smith. She is survived by her sister, Elizabeth (Liz) Smith, her brother in law Dr. James C.(Jim) Smith, her nephew's wife Joy Smith and sons Daniel and Matthew, nieces Dr. Anne Selvey, her husband Tim and daughter Alexandra, and Patricia Willis, and her husband Ben and children Chloe, Emily and Jesse.

No service is planned at this time due to the constraints imposed by the COVID virus. Her ashes will be interred, per her wishes, in the Rose family plot in Sylvan Abbey Memorial Gardens near Dunnellon, Florida. The family will gather at an appropriate time in the future to celebrate her life.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Big Bend Hospice or to a fund endowed by her family at FSU to help maintain and staff a resource and study room for students in Art History. Checks should be made to The FSU Foundation, with "The Patricia Rose Fund" on the subject line and mailed to The FSU Foundation, 325 W College Ave. 32301