Patricia Kimball O’Connell, a longtime resident of the Ingomar neighborhood of McCandless, died December 22 at her daughter’s home in Downingtown, PA.

Born in Alameda, CA on November 29, 1939, the daughter of Edward Clifton and Frances (Carroll) Kimball, she never lost the instinctive optimism or love of the sun of a native Californian, or her loyalty to her beloved California Golden Bears.

After graduating from the University of California at Berkeley in 1960, Pat was an elementary school teacher in California before arriving Pittsburgh in 1964 with a husband recently discharged from the Navy, several months pregnant with her first child, and without knowing a soul who lived within hundreds of miles.

It did not take her long to put down roots in her new home, becoming active in the AAUW, the PTC at Ingomar Elementary, the North Hills YMCA, and as a CCD teacher at St. Teresa of Avila Parish in Perrysville.

It was at St. Teresa that she would find her new professional home as the teacher to two generations of third-graders in Room 6 during her more than thirty years as a teacher there. She was also an active member of St. John Neumann Parish in Franklin Park, serving as a CCD teacher, parish council member, and Eucharistic Minister.

After retiring she devoted herself to extensive travel, attentive grandmothering, voracious reading, and a determined quest to explore new beaches.

She is survived by her five children:  Michael, his wife Jacinta, and their children Katherine, Clare, and Mary of Natrona Heights; Maureen, her husband Jeffrey Mucha, and their children Ryan, Ben, Nate, and Grace of Downingtown; Brian and his partner Megan Steintrager of Brooklyn; Patrick, his wife Amy, and their children Gavin and Maggie of Denver; and Liz, her husband Rob Francis, and their children Zizi and Otto of Seattle.

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her only sister, Peggy Kimball Paldi, her husband Michael John O’Connell, and her grandson Jacob Michael O’Connell.

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