Patricia Alvarez Spalding

Patricia Alvarez Spalding, a most amazing and wonderful mother, daughter, sister, spouse, aunt, grandmother, and friend passed away peacefully in the early hours of Sunday, June 9, 2024, from the complications of dementia. She had been under hospice care and was surrounded by family at the time of her passing.  She was 84 years old.  She was born in Pasadena, California, on March 26, 1940, and raised in nearby Altadena. She then lived in Pasadena until 1972, when she moved with her family to Newark, California, and resided there for fifty-two years.

Patricia, or Pat as she was known to friends and family, was a magnetic and engaging personality.  With a strong and inquisitive intellect, she skipped the fourth grade in school and graduated from John Muir High School in Pasadena at age 17, going on to the nation’s first two-year registered nursing program at Pasadena City College, and becoming a nurse at the Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena at age 19.  She assumed supervisorial duties in those early years at the hospital and met her future husband F.P. “Bud” Spalding, Jr., while caring for his father at the hospital while the senior Spalding recovered from a heart attack.  Months later, they were married at the Pasadena Covenant Church on September 23, 1961.  They had been married for sixty-two years at the time of her death. Together, they had three children: Bill, Rick, and Cindy, and Pat stayed home to raise the children until returning to nursing in a medical office in 1975.  She retired from nursing in 2005.

Pat was guided by faith, growing up in the Covenant Church, and ultimately becoming an Episcopalian and being an active member of St. James Episcopal Church in Fremont, California.  There, she taught youth group and Sunday school classes, sponsored confirmation candidates, and was a beloved member of the congregation.  She was also an accomplished pianist, taking years of lessons as a child, and playing the piano in her home for a number of years.  Pat was an avid reader, music-lover, and movie-goer, and was particularly interested in theater, making annual trips to the Shakespeare Festival in Ashland, Oregon, for many years.  She was a world traveler, active in the Newark Sister Cities Commission, and visited Newarks across the country and around the globe and visited Europe to stay with friends and visit historic places.  She also enjoyed an annual visit to their timeshare in Florida.  She was an excellent cook, seamstress, and scrapbooker.  She was probably most fondly and lovingly remembered as an engaging conversationalist, a listening and loving and caring friend, and as a generous spirit.  She made everyone feel welcome and important, and maintained deep and lasting friendships.

Patricia Spalding was preceded in death by her parents, Julius and Henrietta Alvarez, and sister Christine Alvarez Wolford.  She is survived by her husband F.P. “Bud” Spalding, Jr.; brother Richard Alvarez; adult children William Spalding (Kimberly), Richard Spalding, and Cynthia Spalding Geibig (Jeffrey), and grandchildren Tynam Spalding, Marin Spalding, and Allison Geibig. Memorial services will be held Saturday, August 17 at 11:00am at St. James Episcopal Church in Fremont, California. In lieu of flowers, donations to the endowment fund at St. James Episcopal Church would be appreciated by the family.