Please remember in your prayers Dr. Patricia Howe, a member of the University of St. Thomas History Department, who died of pancreatic cancer on Friday, Jan. 13, at a hospice in North Carolina. She was 71.
Memorial services will be held Wednesday, Jan. 18, in North Carolina, and early in the spring semester at St. Thomas.
Dr. Patricia Howe
Howe joined the St. Thomas faculty in 1990. In a letter to faculty members, Dr. Terence Langan, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, explained that Howe had been battling pancreatic cancer for more than a year.
“She had to miss all of spring semester 2011 for medical treatment but courageously returned to the classroom for fall semester,” Langan said. “Pat was determined to resume the life that she loved, that of a university professor. Sadly, she was forced to return to North Carolina for further treatment with only a couple of weeks left in the fall semester.
“Her students knew her as a dedicated professor who maintained high standards and who helped them to attain those standards. Her history colleagues recognized her as an accomplished scholar of European history and, in particular, French history.”
Originally from Washington, D.C., Howe earned her undergraduate degree at The College of William and Mary, her master’s at the University of Hawaii, and her doctorate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before coming to St. Thomas, she taught at North Carolina State University and Salem College. She is the author of The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Era.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Arthur, and is survived by her daughter, Kari, and two grandchildren.
An obituary can be read here.
