Patricia Lillian Chadwick, professor of nursing at the University of Portland for nearly forty years, dean of the University’s School of Nursing from 1974 to 1996, dean of the Graduate School from 2001 until 2006, and a tireless and much-respected colleague to many on The Bluff, passed away at her Portland home on Thursday, July 27, 2006. She had been battling cancer for a number of years.
Pat joined the University in 1968 as an assistant professor. In 1974 she was named dean of the School of Nursing, a job she held for a record 23 years. In 1996 she was promoted to a position created for her, a sort of administrative ombudsman, responsible for all sorts of academic, faculty, and campus programs, from creating an Early Alert student assistance program to the development of advisory councils that greatly strengthened the University’s board of regents.
For all her administrative accomplishments, Chadwick’s legacy on The Bluff and in Oregon is perhaps most felt by the many men and women she taught and mentored as a professor; she was also an adjunct at Oregon State University, helped create Turk House in Baltimore (for treatment of alcoholism), and delivered uncountable lectures, talks, speeches, and seminars all over North America. Among her many honors were awards from the Oregon Nurses Association (for leadership) and from the University of Portland (for creative service).
Pat will long be remembered at the University for her meticulous attention to detail, her endless patience in training and teaching new students and new administrators, her calm and consistent professionalism in dealing with problems big and small, her astounding accessibility far beyond the confines of the work week, her courteous candor, her unflagging dignity and consideration, and her unwavering commitment to the mission of the University. The way in which Pat Chadwick taught about attentiveness and grace in every aspect of her life and career is part of our story on The Bluff forever. Shortly before her death, Pat was honored with the establishment of the annual Pat Chadwick Award in the School of Nursing; gifts in celebration of her life may be made to the University in any capacity.
For more information on University history see the University Almanac at www.up.edu/almanac.