Patricia Boyd

Patricia Ann (Collins) Boyd

Age 76, of Glide, Oregon passed Aug. 14, 2024. Born March 23, 1948, in Torrance, California, to Larry and Ruth (King) Collins, she and her family moved soon thereafter to Fontana, California, where she grew up in the family home built by her father, playing with her brother Larry in the orange grove and grape vineyard on their property.

She attended elementary school at St. Joseph Academy and high school at Fontana High, graduating in 1966. Always a proud Fontana Steeler, she enjoyed reuniting with former classmates at class of '66 reunions. Several of those classmates became lifelong friends who she maintained contact with over the years.

After Patti graduated from high school, she moved with her parents to Oregon where her father purchased a hunting lodge and 320 acres at Idleyld Park. Over the years, the lodge served as a special place for many gatherings of the Collins and King families. Patti attended Umpqua Community College and graduated with an Associate of Arts degree in 1968. Always outgoing, she made many lifelong friends at the college who will certainly remember the weekend parties at the lodge. One of those friends introduced her to a shy young man from Riddle - Patrick Boyd. They hit it off at a fairgrounds dance and started seeing each other regularly. They were married Aug. 16, 1969, in St. Joseph's Catholic Church in Roseburg.

They settled in Eugene where both continued their education at the University of Oregon, with Patti graduating in 1972, with a Bachelor of Science degree. During their time in Eugene, they bought a house near campus on Hilyard Street and began to raise a family. Branden was born in 1974, Benjamin in 1977, and Ryan in 1980.

In 1980, they moved to Glide so that their boys could be closer to both sets of grandparents. Pat got a job teaching at Glide High School and Patti began assisting her good friend at the Little Red School House preschool. Once all three boys were in school, Patti went back to work full-time as a librarian's aide at Glide Elementary School.

In the late 1980's, striving to learn more and improve her family's livelihood, she began taking night classes during the school year and attending summer sessions full time at Western Oregon University in Monmouth. Giving up her summer vacations, she commuted from Glide, staying with good friends in nearby Albany during the week and driving back home to Glide Friday nights for the weekends. Through Western Oregon, she earned her Oregon teaching certificate and in 1994, a Master of Science degree in education.

Patti continued to work for the Glide School District and when the Elementary School Librarian retired, Patti was hired to replace her. Throughout her long career in the Glide School District, she took on new challenges through numerous positions, including Glide High School Librarian, Glide School District Librarian and High School Science and Art Teacher. She was passionately involved in acquiring modern technology for the school district, helping write grant proposals to the Ford Family Foundation for computers and network infrastructure. Patti was also immensely proud to have provided input on the design of the new library and to have selected the book collection for it when a fire destroyed the old high school library in 2008. That was her final contribution to Glide schools before retirement.

Patti loved her sons deeply and was always involved in her their childhood activities and education. She volunteered to help with everything from Cub Scouts to teaching CCD classes (religious education) to being the scorekeeper for summer recreation baseball teams. She never missed an athletic event, school play, band or choir performance, often videotaping and photographing these for family memories.

When she wasn't working or volunteering, Patti enjoyed gardening, painting, quilting, reading, bowling, attending Oregon Duck games, camping, traveling and most importantly, simply being with her family. She loved her grandchildren and took great pleasure in making baby quits for them and for other family members and friends. She was a passionate gardener and maintained a beautiful yard and vegetable garden every year, showing her sons and eventually her grandsons how to sow seeds and care for plants. She loved to travel and explore new places and her children have many fond memories of their family camping and travel experiences. They especially enjoyed a trip in 1989, when the family drove across the United States and back in their Chevy van, camping all along the way and visiting numerous national parks. In addition, the family enjoyed several trips to Hawaii, Germany, England and Scotland exploring their ancestry and visiting family friends.

Her interest in other cultures and countries stemmed from hosting a foreign exchange student from Germany her senior year in high school. She and her AFS sister, Regine Grave (nee Bauer), became good friends and over the years their families were able to visit each other both in Germany and in the US. Her interest in AFS continued when her own sons were in high school and Patti and Pat hosted a student themselves, Alex van der Zwart, from The Netherlands. Patti considered both Alex and the Grave family to be an extension of her own family.

In later years, Patti and Pat enjoyed several ocean cruises with their close friends and travel buddies, including trips to Alaska and Hawaii as well as voyages throughout the Mediterranean and the Caribbean. Also avid Oregon Ducks fans, Patti and Pat were season ticket holders for both football and men's basketball and travelled to many of the bowl games including two Fiesta Bowls, two Rose Bowls and one National Championship game.

Patti will be remembered for her positive personality, mischievous sense of humor and her love for life. She was a genuinely happy person, and her happiness and cheerful good nature were contagious. She loved being with other people, whether it was her family, her close friends, her bowling buddies, her Bunco group, her sorority sisters, her travel companions, her nurses and caregivers, her former students, her former classmates or former colleagues - she enjoyed her time with them all immensely. She will be missed by all those she touched.

She is survived by her loving husband of 55 years, Patrick; sons - Branden Boyd and wife Melissa Thornton of Portland, Ben Boyd of McMinnville and Ryan Boyd and wife Dana of Eugene; grandchildren - James Arthur Boyd, Robert Patrick Boyd and Daniel Ryan Boyd; brother Larry Collins III and his wife Barbara of Apple Valley, California; sisters-in-law Kevin Marie Kraaz and her husband Louis of Springfield and Patricia (Patt) Boyd of West Linn; nieces - Victoria Albers and husband Gene of Chino, California, Beth Valentine and husband Ric of Hesperia, California, and Michelle Nash of Riddle; nephews - Larry Collins IV and wife Denise of Redlands, California, Troy Boyd and wife Rene of Canyonville, Louis Kraaz Jr. and wife Kasey of Bend and Nicholas Kraaz and wife Kristina of Eugene; and many grandnieces and grandnephews, aunts, uncles and cousins that she dearly loved. She was preceded in death by her brother-in-law Michael Boyd and by many aunts and uncles from the King, Collins, Boyd and Hausotter families who she fondly remembered and loved to tell stories about.

Despite an increasingly difficult battle with terminal cancer during her final months, she lived courageously and with grace, never losing her ability to flash her beautiful smile or drop a witty comment that would leave everyone in the room laughing and smiling themselves. With the loving care of her husband and sons and the help of the Amedisys hospice team and caregivers from New Horizons, she was able to pass comfortably in her own home of 42 years in Glide. The family is grateful for the care and friendship provided by her caregivers and hospice team and for her primary care physicians over the years -- Dr. Tim Powell and Dr. Brandon Bonds and their staffs at Evergreen Family Medicine and for her oncologist Dr. Stephen Williams and his staff at Steelhead Oncology.

The family is planning a celebration of her life later this year and will share the details at the Wilson's Chapel of the Roses website ( https://www.wilsonschapel.com/obituaries/ ) once confirmed. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation ( https://themmrf.org/ ) or the American Cancer Society ( https://donate.cancer.org/?campaign=default&lang=en ).