Dear Mrs. Pate,

Oh what a joy to hear your voice; just to know that you are doing well, although not without some pain and struggle unfortunately, is very good news.

I had really meant to call earlier to see how you were doing. So nice to know that the Glee Club members still call you to express their warm wishes.

I have reached the age where I have more memories than I know what to do with them.

Certainly, remembrances of you stand vividly alive with grace and strength. You gave so much to all of us.

The practice and discipline you taught us have served us well through our lives. I am thankful to have had your encouragement and support.

Perfection requires endless hours of toil and patience; you embodied that so well to always push us to do our best.

Everything we have done in this life has had your touch, your spirit, your energy and verve.

It has made the difference between the common and the uncommon. Sometimes that difference seems a small one, but it is the difference of living life to its fullness without regret and always with style and grace.

Love, Ed Butler

Dorothy L. Scott Pate

Dorothy Pate was a teacher. The South Bend Community School Board hired her to teach music. But she taught much more than that.

In teaching how to sing, she taught us to do warm up exercises before using our voices (remember all those octaves in "la" ?). I have since, more than once, used those same exercises prior to giving a public address in either my professional or community activities.

In preparing for our annual Christmas concert, Vespers, she taught us to begin checking our robes, equipment and music long before the actual concert. I have since used the skills I learned then in time management and strategic planning on many occasions. (How Mrs. Pate would have loved "post-its" instead of pinning all those notes to her blouse in the final days before the performance!)

In drilling us for our entrance into the auditorium at Vespers she taught us how to march in precision. Many times since, in both public and private ceremonies, I have drawn on the poise, dignity and decorum that was learned in preparing for The Processional.

In conducting Glee Club business matters, she taught us more than taking attendance or keeping track of music. She taught us how to assume individual responsibility, to delegate tasks and to verify their implementation, and to bear and carry out authority in a dignified and self-assured manner. Certainly these role models and skills have stayed with me for life.

In rehearsing us at our many practice sessions (remember those early morning Glee Club rehearsals in winter when you crunched over the frozen snow in the dark, moon-lit parking lot?) She taught us more than the mastery of exact notes in a specific score. I learned commitment and perseverance, that if you want something badly you must labor to achieve it – lessons I have since applied many times in my life.

And, of course, she taught us values, not just those that the different notes of a score might have, but ones about how to live life (remember the "he can who believes he can" placard?). Later on, when feminism came into vogue, some might have wondered about the wording on that sign. But Mrs. Pate, in her very being, would never have given anyone cause to think that accomplishment was synonymous with being male or that being a woman meant one was a wishy-washy, indecisive person, a "fliberty-gibbet."

Nor did being an accomplished working woman preclude being a dedicated wife and spouse. Those of us who were privileged enough to get to know Mr. Pate, her beloved Lawrie, know that theirs was a relationship of balance and mutual admiration, of give and take, of unending devotion – a living example of a loving relationship.

Finally, oh yes, Mrs. Pate taught us to appreciate music – good music – in all its forms. She instilled in us her love of the beauty that is in music, a love that has, and will continue to, stay with us throughout our lives, just as many of the other things she taught us have stayed with us.

In teaching us al of these things, she will forever remain with us. Her legacy and her memory will live on in "her children." And, I know I will always have a catch at my heart when I experience a truly moving musical performance, and, that for just one moment I will find myself thinking, "Mrs. Pate would have really enjoyed that; she would have approved."

Susan E. Grosser, Junior Glee Club 1963-1964