Memories from Sue Porter

8 February 2009

I have written a piece about our nearly 50-year friendship. Pat was and is a great person. Sharon Turman Smith and I remarked the other day that we have NEVER heard her say an unkind word about anyone. NEVER. I asked Pat one time how she was able to do this and she remarked that there was good in everyone. Obviously, she didn't dwell on the negative.

In 1962 Roger Haglund and I were in the same BYU ward. He told me about his sister, Pat, and her work in elementary music education. I met Pat for the first time during the summer of 1963 in New York City when I was on my way to Europe for the summer. She gave me a tour of Teacher's College at Columbia University where she was working on a Master’s degree, and also arranged for us to have lunch with a publisher-friend of hers.

When I found that Pat was scheduled to come to Seattle in 1967 to do a series of workshops I phoned her and invited her to stay with me. Regrettably for Pat and Prentice-Hall they lost the major music textbook adoption in California that year. Pat had worked tirelessly trying to win this adoption for Prentice-Hall. Holt, Rinehart, and Winston won the lion's share of the adoption and Pat was offered a job servicing the adoption. (That meant teaching elementary classroom teachers throughout the state how to use the music books in their classrooms.) She declined the offer, but introduced me to Holt's regional manager. He hired me so I left Seattle to live with Pat and her roommates in Menlo Park, California. The fact that I moved in with the competition (Pat) was of some concern for Holt's manager!

That summer Pat was doing a weeklong workshop for elementary music teachers at San Jose State University. I spent the week learning the tricks of the trade from her. She was a consummate teacher and the teachers loved her. I always said I learned all I knew from Pat! She was truly my mentor.

It was after the workshop that she took a position with BYU, but first she bought my 1966 dark-green-fully-loaded Ford Mustang! (She lost her company car when she left Prentice-Hall and I got a company car when I went to work for Holt.)

It is also noteworthy to mention that Pat was the choir director in the Stanford Singles Ward where Henry Eyring was the bishop. She set a high standard which included performing the Vivaldi “Gloria.” After she moved to Provo I was called to be the choir director. I remember directing the Faure Requiem with the ward choir and a small orchestra. A year or two later I directed the Palo Alto Stake production of Handel’s Messiah with choir, soloists and orchestra.

While I was in Menlo Park I met an LDS man named Richard Gibby. The following summer I spent living in New York City so we could become better acquainted. He worked for Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey. While he worked during the week I found my way to Pat’s alma mater, Teacher’s College, and signed up for a couple of classes. Richard and I did not continue our relationship, but I continued summers at Teacher’s College so I could also work on my Master’s Degree (more of Pat’s influence). Eventually, I also earned a Doctor of Education at the same institution.

Since then we have had many visits together. When Pat brought Rebecca to Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania they stayed with us both in Wilmington, Delaware and at our beach house on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. I know that somewhere I have a photo of Pat tubing behind a speedboat on the Chesapeake! It seems to me Pat and Kent also stayed with us when Rebecca graduated.

Many times my husband and I have been guests in Pat and Kent’s home. We have been guests at dinner along with other fascinating people. When our sons Ben and Matt attended BYU they were sometimes guests for Sunday dinners. Four years ago we inherited a condo at Three Fountains in Provo. During the past several summers we have spent time playing games, visiting, and eating ice cream with Pat’s wonderful homemade fudge topping. Pat introduced us to Lorna and Brian Best who are also in the Edgemont 9th Ward. Pat was great at making connections and we were often the beneficiaries of that!

Pat and I have been friends for nearly half a century. I have watched her children grow, and even remember being present at Tricia’s baby blessing.

Pat thinks she left us too soon. I’m sure she wanted another 5 or 10 years out of this earthly life, but as a former roommate I can assure everyone that Pat lived nine lives in her one life. It seems she required about 3 hours sleep a night and ran circles around the rest of us who just had normal bodies and minds!

We will miss Pat. Visits to Provo just won’t be the same without her. I hope she is looking for my relatives on the other side – those Yanks (Jank) whose name is also in her family history! God bless her posterity.

Affectionately,
Susan Yank Porter