Patricia Gorey

     Patricia was the first of four children born to Roy and Margaret Phillips, followed in order by her brother, Michael, her sister, Peggy and her brother Tommy. Roy worked as a timekeeper, a role that allowed him to help build of the iconic Chicago Skyway, an architectural marvel, soaring as it does to more than 125 feet above the Calumet River and industrial harbor, connecting the Dan Ryan Expressway to the Indiana Toll Road.

     Patricia, who went by Pat, and sometimes Patsy, often told her children and others, that their family “lived on love” on Chicago’s south side. Their strong Catholic faith, further strengthened by their Catholic educations, the humility they cultivated and their trust in God’s providence allowed all of Roy’s and Margaret’s children to flourish. They consistently brought their love, in word but more so in deed, following their parents’ example, to friends, strangers, everyone they met and most genorously to their children.

     At a high school mixer, Pat, a student at Aquinas, caught the eye of Leo’s Larry Gorey. Larry asked her to dance, and then never let go. Though Larry’s dad, a highly respected lieutenant in the Chicago police department was offered, by the director of admissions at Georgetown University a full ride to Larry, a fine student, Larry turned it down. When his dad asked why, Larry said with a smile, “Because I’m going to marry Pat”.

     After high school Larry, who’d by then been going steady with Pat for years, decided to meet his obligation to serve the United States by joining the navy, while Pat headed up north to study at Mount Mary College in Milwaukee and later at Purdue University. Having completed his service to the country Larry returned to Chicago and the two were married in December of 1958.

     Like their own parents, Pat and Larry were also blessed with two boys and two girls. First came Julie, married to Joel Farris, parents of Brian, married to Jenna, parents of Callum and Lydia; Kevin, married to Aly, parents of Rhodes and Campbell; Michael James, married to Barbara, parents of Michael Lawrence; Elizabeth, married to Michael Aaron, parents of Ava Grace and Gabriel Lucas; Daniel, married to Paige, and Katherine; Susie who married John Fredericks (remarried to Mariette after Susie passed), the parents of Margaret, married to Max, parents of Myles, Madden and Mason; and Johnny, married to Hope, parents of Sheppard and Georgia; Larry, married to Rochelle, parents of Claire and Audrey.

     While in grammar school Pat read the entire dictionary in preparation for an archdiocese of Chicago-wide spelling bee, in which she finished runner up. With her dear aunt Mary, an esteemed and legendarily generous Chicago Public School system teacher, and her beloved aunt, Sister Micheline, the superintendent of the Archdiocese of St. Louis – and a math whiz, life-long learning was extremely important to the Phillips’ family, with her brother and sister, Peggy and Tommy both going on to become teachers after college.

     Such inspiration compelled Pat to become a substitute teacher when the family moved to Miami and then again, when she re-entered the work force with her children grown, becoming a pre-school teacher at the Village Nursery school. From there Pat went on to work in roles of increasing responsibility in human resources, first at the public transit company, Nortran, then on to the convenience store chain as an executive at 7-11, though once a year serving ice cold slushies to customers while working behind the counter, and finally with the telecommunications company, Siemens/ROLM.

     Pat and Larry lived in Chicago right after they were married but soon moved to Dolton, a southern suburb of Chicago, to raise their growing family. After several years they moved to Miami where the entire family fell in love with the ocean. With no other family in the vicinity, weekends were almost always spent at the beach. Larry became a certified SCUBA diver and soon after so did Pat, additionally, all their children became certified divers and a good percentage of their grandchildren, including one, Daniel, who recently became Divemaster certified in Australia to safely lead other divers on dives.