RONALD, Pat

RONALD, M.D., Patricia Pat Ronald spent most of her professional life as a physician at Dayton Children's Hospital. Ironically, through her working and retirement years, she had to endure a series of illnesses of her own, and sadly, at the age of 84, they finally overcame even her fierce fighting spirit when she died in peace at Hospice of Dayton on September 2, 2020. Until the end, she maintained a positive outlook on life, accepting her own several bouts of cancer and late-life scoliosis as something to be dealt with so that she could move on with her work and the many other things that were important to her. Pat graduated from medical school at the University of Liverpool in the UK. In 1960, she married her husband, Terry, who was a fellow student at the same university. In 1964, they moved to Dayton, where Terry's postgraduate career took him to Wright-Patterson. At Dayton Children's, until retirement in 2001, she specialized in pulmonary medicine, pediatric cardiology and especially the treatment of cystic fibrosis. Pat was active in several pastimes that satisfied her literary and musical nature. A lover of classical music, she was a member of several choirs, most notably for thirty years or more with the Yellow Springs Community Chorus. She was involved with various local theatres over many years, in acting roles as well as designing costumes. For several decades, she was a member of a Shakespeare reading group that started in Yellow Springs and has continued to this day. She was a writer, having short stories published in literary magazines. She was a member of the Dayton Playhouse play-reading committee that each year reviewed hundreds of submissions for its annual festival of new plays. Though they lived in different homes for many years, she is truly missed by Terry - her spouse, her lifetime friend, and in her later years, her helper, chauffeur, shopper and general full-time support system. Pat had no children of her own, but she always looked forward to visits back to the UK to visit her two sisters and to see her many nieces and nephews. She was a fighter for the welfare of others, devoted to her medical work, a lover of all things literary, and above all was gentle, kind and generous. Arrangements were made by Glickler Funeral Home, Dayton. One day, when life returns to normal, her ashes will be scattered over her beloved moors in her northern England ancestral home - the land of green rolling hills, drystone walls, small stone-built cottages and meandering flocks of sheep. Memorial contributions may be made to Dayton Playhouse or Hospice of Dayton.

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