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Patricia A Stuart, “Pat” to all who knew her, passed away peacefully this Christmas night due to complications from a stroke suffered nearly two years ago.
Pat spent her life dedicated to serving and improving the world we live in, her country, community and family. She was born Dec. 14, 1939 in Portland, Oregon. After graduate school and the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Pat entered into the first generation of post World War II female case officers in the Central Intelligence Agency’s operations division. Her 31-year career with the CIA was served with distinction and included multiple awards as well as three tours as Chief of Station.
Pat then pursued a second career as an author and breeder of horses on the Heart Mountain family homestead in Park County, Wyoming. She wrote several books, showed and won an uncountable number of ribbons with her beautiful horses, taught children and their parents to love and care for horses, and thoroughly enjoyed the natural environs and the rustic and artistic communities of the greater Yellowstone Park area. Her lifelong passion for learning and reading led her to volunteer on the library boards in the nearby towns of Cody and Powell, where she coordinated — along with many friends, fellow volunteers, and her constant companion Lakshmi the library dog — the fundraising and organizing required to build larger and modernized facilities.
Pat loved nothing more than a thoughtful conversation, lecture, article or book on an interesting, relevant or controversial topic. In her later years she found great meaning in her work as a weekly columnist for both the Cody and Powell newspapers, helping people to understand the ever more complex world around them.
In early January of 2024 Pat suffered a devastating stroke which paralyzed her right side and left her unable to speak. Ever the disciplined and tough western woman, her first words in recovery were “working hard … and … working harder.” Which she did. Eventually she recovered her ability to walk and to communicate while in a modern assisted living facility just a mile away from her daughter, two grandsons and son-in-law back in her old Virginia stomping grounds just outside of Washington, D.C. She spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with her family, went to bed, and was discovered nonresponsive the following morning.
She is survived by her daughter Robyn McGuckin, son-in-law Matthew Zawislak, grandsons Zachary and Aron Zawislak, her sister Diana Stuart, nephews Oscar Johnson and John Reher, and niece Becky Reher.
Please keep Pat in your memories and let her life serve as an inspiration.
To find out more about her life and work please visit her website: patstuart.com.
Pat wanted a simple cremation with her ashes spread in the mountains above the cabin that her mother Marolyn Miller Reher Brand had built, along with support from Pat, her siblings Diana and Rob, and their father Alvin Gilbert Reher, during their summers in the forest area surrounding Yellowstone Park. Please consider donations to the Park County library in lieu of flowers at the following link: parkcountylibrary.org/support-pcls.
