Patricia Judd Griffin OBITUARY
Patty passed away peacefully at our home in Santa Cruz on the evening of August 31 surrounded by family after a short bout with Pancreatic Cancer. She is survived by her husband Brian L. Smith of Santa Cruz, her son John Griffin-Leggit and his partner Shanae Dhooge of Missoula, Mt., her stepdaughter Jessica Smith and husband Rory Cox of Ben Lomond, her stepson Kyle and wife Rebecka Smith and Patty’s 2 granddaughters Kennedy and Hannah Smith all from Clifton Park, NY, her brother John Griffin and wife Victoria of Monterey and her sister Sally and husband Don Carpenter of Charmichael, Ca. She was preceded in death by her father John Joseph Griffin and her mother Sally Judd Griffin who founded the first Meals on Wheels program on the Monterey Peninsula. The Sally Griffin Senior Center in Pacific Grove bears her name.
Patty was born in the Richmond District of San Francisco and moved to Pacific Grove when she was 8 with her family. She graduated in 1972 from Santa Catalina High School in Monterey and received a BA in Art History from UCSC in 1976.
Patty spent 36 years as a resource specialist teaching learning disabled kids in Soledad School District and over 30 years in the Live Oak School District at Del Mar and Shoreline Middle Schools where she loved teaching the children she helped through the years. We spent our 22 years together traveling the globe and exploring new destinations. She loved seeing the art, architecture, eating the food and experiencing the cultures in places like Ireland, England, France, Italy and Central America and exploring history in other lands including visiting the home of her ancestors in County Clare in Ireland and the Maya ruins in Tikal, Caracol and Teotihuacan. Patty said her last must see destination in her life was Italy and we spent the entire month of May there. That trip will always be an experience that I am thankful she had the opportunity to experience just before her diagnosis.
Most of all she loved being with our children, their partners and her granddaughters. We became a family of 1 over the years having a love for each others children as though they were our own. Patty was a loving, giving person who brought smiles and joy to so many friends and work mates, she will be greatly missed to all of us lucky enough to call her mom, stepmom, grandma, friend and wife.
We love you and we will always miss you Patty!
The family requests that if you would like to remember Patty in a way that could help others who are or will suffer from pancreatic cancer to make a donation in her name to John Hopkins Pancreatic Research (Sol Goodman Center), https://pathology.jhu.edu/pancreas/donate
