Patricia A. Emmet

Newport, RI - Patricia A. Emmet, 59, died of metastatic breast cancer at her home in Newport on May 27. She is survived by her husband of nearly 30 years, William Emmet, with whom she also maintained a home in Washington, DC, and her two children, Nicholas, 28 and Susanna, 26 both of New York City. All were at her bedside when she died. Born in Buffalo, NY, she was the daughter of the late Thomas B. and Mary E. Reitz.She attended Bard College and received her degree from the New School for Social Research. Following graduate work at Bank Street College of Education, she received her masters in education from Georgia State University. As a graduate student, she trained and certified Head Start teachers in Georgia. Upon moving to Newport, she became a consultant and dance teacher at St. Michaels School and then director of programs for children at Child and Family Services. She taught for 13 years at the Gordon School in East Providence. In 1999, she moved with her husband to Washington, DC, where she became a first grade teacher at the Maret School, retiring due to illness before the school year began in fall 2006. She was a fierce advocate for children and worked to advance the art and profession of teaching. She was a woman of extraordinary energy and the highest of standards, which she applied to all parts of her life. She worked hard at everything she did, especially nurturing her family, to whom she bequeathed insatiable curiosity and a love of laughter, cooking, gardening, the arts, travel, and the natural beauty of the outdoors. Physical activity was a mainstay of her life; she loved to ski, play tennis, and ride her bicycle, and a brisk walk on the beach with friends was her preferred social experience. She was a voracious reader and a very private person who could spend hours alone with a book or in the garden. First and always a teacher, she turned her struggle with cancer into a lesson on putting the most into life and drawing the most from it. In addition to her family, she leaves behind a large number of students of all ages who learned from her example. A service in her memory will be held at noon on Saturday, June 2, 2007, at ?Whetstone, 455 Tuckerman Avenue, Middletown. In lieu of flowers, her family requests contributions in her name to the Norman Bird Sanctuary, 583 Third Beach Road, Middletown, RI 02842.