Patricia ("Pat") Ann Eskoz (née Sullivan), 93, passed away on May 4, 2022, at Castle Rock Adventist Hospital, due to complications from injuries suffered after several falls in early January and February.
Pat was a former mountain climber, who had scaled all of Colorado's 14,000' mountains ("14ers") over a 30-year period, starting in 1950 with Mt. Sneffels, to her last, Mt. Ellingwood, in 1980. She is listed as the 227th person registered with the Colorado Mountain Club ("CMC") to have climbed all 54 Fourteeners. The Colorado mountains, particularly the 14ers, were Pat's abiding love. She, her younger brother, Richard ("Dick"), youngest brother, Doug, and various other friends, accompanied her on some of her early adventures, and her husband and son were her climbing companions later in life (and also climbed all the 14ers). In fact, it was Pat, long before there was modern equipment, GPS, or even easily accessible "trail maps," who instigated the climb up Mt. Sneffels.
As she told the story, she had "heard of a dentist in Montrose who had climbed Mt. Sneffels," and although somewhat hesitant to contact him, she ultimately did so. The dentist ended up drawing a map of the climbing route on the back of a napkin. As Pat described that first climb (August 27, 1950) to her brother, Dick, in an email on its 71st anniversary in 2021, "It changed my life!" In fact, another 14er which ended up changing her life, was a climb up Pikes Peak, on June 12, 1954. Pat had skipped a wedding, to instead go on a climb with the CMC, where she met her future husband, Seymour ("Sy") Eskoz. She might have "finished" all the 14ers years earlier, but her progress was interrupted by marriage (to Sy) on March 4, 1955, children, (Sylvia, and Ron) and in a progressive path for the time, life as a working mom.
Pat was born in Olathe, Colorado, on May 19, 1928, and grew up in a rural farmhouse, where her father Fred Sullivan, was both a farmer and the Olathe County Commissioner. In fact, Fred was instrumental in pushing for the development of the Montrose Airport, and his photo still hangs on one of the airport walls. After graduating from Olathe High School, Pat received her B.A. in English and Education at Western State College of Colorado in 1950, and Master of Library Science at the University of Denver in 1966.
Pat early on demonstrated a love of, and gift for writing, a talent she continued to exhibit in various creative writing classes throughout her life. She wrote her first (unpublished) "novel" at age 16, a tome called "The Zogazolla Adventure," which perhaps inspired by the novel "Lost Horizons," a popular book at the time, describes a lost flight into a mysterious land of people calling themselves "Zogazollans." The first page of her book describes an "archaeologist who had been on exciting expeditions, digging in ruins," decades before "Indiana Jones" in Raiders of the Lost Ark became a worldwide sensation. Pat was also noted for writing (and having published) a number of letters to the editor in the Denver Post, in which she argued "for" or "against" some issue with which she agreed or (more often than not) had taken exception.
During her career, Pat worked at various libraries around the state, from sole and head librarian at tiny Rangely College to Mesa College in Grand Junction, extending and finally ending her career at the large and growing Auraria Library System in Denver, serving several colleges and universities. A comical poster she had on her wall for years depicted a determined librarian, having to decide whether to use "his vast skills as a reference librarian, for 'good' or 'evil'. Pat had a great sense of humor.
Pat retired from the Auraria Library system in January 1993, the same month her first grandchild, Casey Dorn, was born. After retiring, and primarily after 2002, when her husband Sy passed away, she embarked on a pet project over the course of several years which combined her love of writing, the state of Colorado, and her library career. This project consisted of driving trips around the state to investigate, promote and photograph small, rural libraries. The result of this endeavor was a self-published book in 1999, Libraries in the Nooks and Crannies of Colorado, Small Public Libraries in Rural Communities, “describing my visits to 79 of the very smallest libraries in Colorado." Pat was interviewed about her book, and her life, by an archivist at the Douglas County Libraries, and the written/audio transcript is available at: https://archives.dcl.org/digital/search/searchterm/Eskoz
In 2007, Pat moved from the home she shared with her husband, Sy, from 1970 until his death on May 5, 2002, in north Denver, to the Castle Rock area, where she lived in an apartment in the home of her son, Ron Eskoz and his family.
She later became involved with a group of women in her church, dedicated to service and prayer, "Daughters of the King."
Pat was generous, loving, kind and devout. Her church, Christ Episcopal was especially important to her. However, during the pandemic she professed somewhat of a relief at being able to attend "Zoom" church, as she didn't have to dress up and could enjoy the service with a cup of coffee.
Sylvia and grandson Casey were annual summer visitors during Pat's years in Castle Rock. She accompanied them on various trips around the state, as they started climbing 14ers together, most memorably a trip in August 2008 to Ouray, where Sylvia and Casey reached the summit of Pat's beloved Mt. Sneffels. Pat lived to see the 14ers climbing torch in her family pass to her grandson, at the time of her passing, more than halfway to the finish line. On each of those trips (her apartment always serving as "home" base), she would admonish Casey to "climb [the peak] for me."
Granddaughter Emily was instrumental in encouraging and helping Pat, then in her 80s, to join Facebook, and the 14ers.com group, where she very quickly became a minor celebrity, as she began posting photos and narratives of her climbing escapades on "Throwback Thursdays." Climbers whose parents hadn't even been born when Pat first started climbing in the 50s, were enchanted and enthralled by this early pioneer's descriptions of her early climbing career.
Pat is survived by her brother, Richard F. Sullivan, daughter Sylvia Dorn (Kirk), grandson Casey, son Ron Eskoz (Kimberly), granddaughter Emily, nieces Erin (Sullivan) Hailer, Amy, Kathy, Sharon, and nephew Jim. She is beloved by many more friends, and deeply missed by all.
A Celebration of Life service will be held at 12 PM on August 27th, at Christ Episcopal Church, in Castle Rock, Colorado, in honor of the date of Pat's first climb up Mt. Sneffels. At her request, her ashes will be scattered over her beloved Mt. Sneffels in a final tribute after her service.
In lieu of flowers, her family asks that donations be made to the Colorado 14ers initiative (https://www.coloradogives.org/14ers/overview?step=step1), an organization devoted to the protection and preservation of the "Fourteeners," the Colorado mountains she loved most in life.
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