Patricia "Pat" C. Witmer

Patricia Charles Witmer, wife of J. Melvin Witmer, passed away peacefully at home on September 4th under hospice care at the age of 94 following a long illness of Alzheimer’s disease. She was born on August 30, 1930, in Lancaster County, PA. Members of her family and friends recently gathered around her bed before she passed away to observe her 94th Birthday and 72nd Wedding Anniversary.

Patricia (Pat) was the second of six children born to Milton D. and Helen M. Charles. She grew up in a rural farming area outside Lancaster, PA. Pat attended a neighborhood one-room elementary school with grades 1-8 and graduated from Manor-Millersville High School (now Penn Manor High School) in 1948. Years later when asked what she enjoyed most about high school she said “having a good time.” Playing a trombone in the high school band was a part of that good time. However, she was serious enough to make the honor roll several times.

Pat and her husband, Mel Witmer, grew up as members of the same small Evangelical United Brethren (later United Methodist) country church where they were active in the youth program. They did not date until several years after graduating from the same high school. While he was in the military service, Pat wrote to him almost daily and traveled 600 miles by train or car on numerous occasions to meet him in Indianapolis, IN. After Mel served 21 months of active duty in the U.S. Army during the Korean War, they were married on August 31, 1952. Pat worked eight years as a secretary for Radio Corporation of America before she resigned her job to become the mother of their first of two children. Joan Elaine Witmer was born in 1957 and a second child, Bradford Charles Witmer, was born in 1962.

When her husband decided to go to graduate school at Florida State University in 1964, she readily agreed to sell their new home of eight years, store their furniture, leave family and friends of a lifetime, and move to Tallahassee, FL. Following her husband’s completion of graduate school for his doctorate, the family moved to Athens, OH for her husband to take a position as an assistant professor at Ohio University. In 1971 she began full-time employment for two ophthalmologists (Drs. Hank Croci and Bruce Paxton) establishing a medical practice in Athens, OH. During the next 18 years she was receptionist and office manager for a busy and very successful medical practice. When Pat retired in 1989, she and her husband immediately moved to Hilton Head Island, SC, where they have resided in the same house for 35 years.

Pat’s leisure-time interests while living in Athens were bowling, reading, traveling, and camping. In state bowling tournaments she won several awards. Camping included weekend visits to state parks and private campgrounds in the Ohio area. Her longest camping experience was camping with the family all the way from Ohio to California in the summer of 1973. It wasn’t until 1979 that she and Mel discovered Hilton Head Island during a one-week vacation.

Pat and Mel made an easy transition in retirement to Hilton Head Island. For the first 10 years Pat enjoyed being a beach bum, doing temporary help work, volunteering for church and community work, and exploring the beauty and amenities of the Island. Retirement provided time for visiting with grandchildren and entertaining them at the beach. For the next 15 years she progressed through several hobbies in the arts and crafts. Her first craft was making jewelry, mostly earrings. But her greatest passion was making prayer shawls and baby hats with the church knitting group. She knitted and croqueted hundreds of items until she was no longer able to remember the stitches because of the progression of Alzheimer’s disease at age 87. Pat was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Hilton Head Island. Visiting the children and grandchildren in Atlanta, GA, Charleston, WV, Boston, MA, and Houston, TX and entertaining them on Hilton Head Island were always enjoyable times.

Summer vacations for 17 years at Banner Elk, NC, became like a second home. Each summer she and her husband spent several weeks on Sugar Mountain to enjoy the cooler weather, the charm of the mountain village, the visitation of friends, and the beauty of the mountains. Her last cruise of more than 25 was in the summer of 2015 which started in Budapest, Hungary and ended in Bucharest, Romania near the Black Sea.

Pat loved and was loved by everybody. Wherever she went, Pat made friends, many of them becoming lifelong friends. Her smile, chuckle, humorous banter and human interest put others at ease. She was always ready to help you out of a challenging life situation. Traits others admired were her friendliness, loyalty, truthfulness, dependability and authenticity. Longtime friends came to value her capacity to listen and reflect on their life circumstances without judgment but thoughtful, sometimes humorous reflections. Pat had good intuition in understanding people. When the occasion arose, she could speak up for women’s rights. Pat lived a life of authenticity and practiced a quiet presence of God in the life she lived.

Pat was predeceased by her parents Milton D. and Helen M. Charles; brother James H. Charles; her sister Shaaron H. Charles, and twin sisters Berneda J. Greider, and Beverly L. Campbell. Numerous aunts and uncles important in her life predeceased her.

Survivors include her husband Mel of 72 years; daughter Joan W. Johnson (Hilton Head Island) and son Bradford C. Witmer (Susan) (Kingwood, TX); five grandchildren: Tyler S. Johnson (Laura), Alexander C. Johnson (Kate), Kelsey S. Witmer (Ashley Freeman), Kayla M. Hopkins (Michael Hopkins), and Connor J. Witmer (Lauren McManus); four great grandchildren: Lauren C. Johnson and Lilly Johnson (Alex and Kate), and Apollo Hopkins and Aurora Hopkins (Kayla and Michael); and a brother Richard F. Charles (Elaine) lives in Lancaster, PA.

A memorial and celebration of life service will be held sometime in the near future at the First Presbyterian Church, Hilton Head Island, SC. Burial will be private at a later time in Pennsylvania in the cemetery of the church of Pat’s youth. In lieu of flowers memorial gifts may be made in Pat’s name to any one of the following organizations: Alzheimer’s Association, PO Box 96011, Washington, DC 20090-6011; or Hospice Care of the Low Country, 7 Plantation Drive, Unit 4, PO Box 3827, Bluffton, SC 29910.

The family gives a special thanks to the caregivers who took excellent care of Pat during the last two years.