In memory: Pat Sippel December 4, 1937 – December 10, 2013
With great sadness, I share with you the shocking news that last week, we lost our friend and Board member Pat Sippel. In our work we deal with loss on an on-going basis, and still we are stunned to hear the news. Pat was a long time volunteer leader with the Monterey Chapter and had served on the Northern California and Northern Nevada Chapter Board for the past five years.
Pat was Chair of Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Monterey, secretary of our board and a steadfast champion of our cause. Pat was one of those long time volunteers who originally expressed skepticism about “realignment,” or the great mergers of 2000-01. Still, she kept the interests of patients and families in the forefront and before long grew to appreciate the strength of our combined efforts.
She had a lovely sense of humor and we will miss her greatly. I’d like to share a few words from our Monterey office leader Sherry Williams about Pat’s wonderful commitment to our cause.
Pat Sippel’s history with the Alzheimer’s Association is a rich and deep one. It is a history of care, commitment and service to the Alzheimer’s community, most especially to those who live in her hometown, Monterey County. From that rainy April day in 1996 when she joined the Association, Pat was a doer, an organizer who paid attention to the details and a woman who took the time to write beautifully penned correspondence to friends and donors. For anyone who enjoyed the fund-raiser, Treasures and Pleasures, or the Carmel Christmas Teddy Bear Shop they have Pat to thank. She made a difference in everything she touched, be it a life or an event.
She made you want to do more and be better than you were- at one time or another Pat served on or chaired every Association Committee, Council , or Board; she showed up to every single fund-raiser to donate and work. The day she passed away she was coming to a Fund Development Committee meeting. Every single member at the table said, “it is so unlike Pat to miss a meeting.”
People move in and out of our lives for a reason and Pat came to the Alzheimer’s Association to work for family services and to find a cure for the disease that stole her mother’s life. She knew what it was to be a caregiver; she was a treasured and highly respected member of the Northern California and Northern Nevada Alzheimer’s family. Pat’s legacy to the Alzheimer’s Association is rich and deep.
