Patricia Bladine Griffin

After a two-year battle with cancer, Patricia died on Valentine’s Day, gallantly, at home, among family and caregivers. We are all so sad. Pat was the center of our lives.

Pat’s beautiful deep-set blue eyes and welcoming smile immediately fetched conversation and new friends wherever she went. In the spring of 1960 at a party in Oakland, a conversation started with Jim Griffin. Four months later, a marriage. Three- and one-half years later there were three children. The conversation continued uninterrupted for sixty-five years.

Pat was born in McMinnville, Oregon, on December 29, 1937. In 1928, her parents, Jack Burrows Bladine, and Gayle Hunter Bladine, both from Iowa newspaper families, moved to McMinnville where Jack and his father Lars had purchased the local newspaper. Jack, along with his brother Phil Bladine, later renamed it the News-Register. The family made many trips between Oregon and Webster City, Iowa, where Jack also assisted Gayle’s father who owned the local paper, the Daily Freeman-Journal and where ‘Patsy’ sometimes went to school.

Patsy was a joyful little girl. A tomboy, she loved to tussle with her brother and friends and swim in the town’s community pool, where she later lifeguarded. In high school she was athletic, an enthusiastic Yell Queen, Homecoming Queen, and a friend to all. At the University of Oregon, she studied Physical Education and was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority; her classmates would meet for retreat every three years for the rest of their lives.

Above all, Pat was an extraordinary mother to her children and a beloved maternal figure to many others. Pat taught P.E. at San Lorenzo High School and for many years was a counselor and swim teacher at the Serra Center for the developmentally disabled in Mission San Jose. She was a director on the Board of the family business, James R. Griffin, Inc.; she rushed bids to last-minute bid openings.

Pat and Jim travelled to faraway places. In 1973, shortly after Nepal opened to the West, they spent two months in India and Nepal living with a family in Kathmandu and studying Buddhism and Nepalese culture. Further adventures included Cape Town, South Africa, Cuba, Patagonia, and Europe, where she reestablished family connection with Swedish relatives in Hudiksvall. Pat and Jim celebrated their 50th Anniversary in Nome, Alaska.

Pat was preceded in death by her parents; her sister, Phyllis Anusich; brother, William Bladine; uncle, Phil Bladine; and cousin, Pam Bladine. She is survived by her husband, Jim; children, Sarah Warnock, (Nils), Randy Griffin, (Ali), and Elizabeth Hedelman, MD, (Harold); by grandchildren, Noah and Anna, Alizé and Maëlle, and Julia and Nicholas; by cousin, Jeb Bladine (now publisher of the McMinnville News-Register); aunt, Margaret Bladine; sister-in-law, Jennifer Bladine; nephew, Gregg Anusich; and nieces, Karen McBride and Stephanie Jones.

In lieu of flowers, remembrances in Pat’s name may be sent to the UCSF-Washington Cancer Center, 2500 Mowry Avenue, Ste. 227, Fremont CA 94538, or charity of choice.