Patricia Alice (Shaughnessy) Schiebel Howard
Patricia Alice Shaughnessy was born in Seattle, Washington on June 12, 1936, and was the first child of Dick and Lois (Temple) Shaughnessy. Pat had two sisters, Vicky and Meredith.
She was an outstanding student. She received her education in Seattle at Alki Elementary School, James Madison Junior High School and Seattle High, from which she graduated from School in 1954.
From 1953 to 1966, Pat worked for the Recreation Division of the Seattle Park Department, alternating between part and full-time, as her schedule allowed. Starting pay was $1.09 per hour.
From 1954 to 1955, she attended Vassar College, Poughkeepsie NY with two scholarships – One was $1000 a year for four years from the Continental Can Company and the other was a one-time $1500 a year from Puget Sound Vassar Alumni Club. Money was scarce and, after the first year at Vassar, she had to return to Seattle to continue her university education at the University of Washington. Here she met and married, in 1956, Joseph Schiebel. Joe, who was born in Sonthofen, Germany and was at the University of Washington as a scholarship student. Pat’s parents were very unhappy about her marriage to a German. The tension in the family was permanently healed in 1957 when Pat & Joe Schiebel’s first child, Victoria Martha was born.
Pat graduated in 1958 from the University of Washington, Seattle WA with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology. She belonged to Chi Omega Sorority. This was the same year that their second child, Tamara Patricia, was born.
Their third and last child, Elizabeth Eugenie (Betsy) was born in 1961.
In 1959, Pat worked for nine months for Boeing Aircraft and then returned to work for the Seattle Park Department. In 1964, Joe Schiebel having completed ABD (all but dissertation) for his doctorate in Slavic Studies, received a one-year fellowship to enable him to undertake research on his dissertation at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland. The family moved with him and lived in the German speaking town of Flamatt where Vicky and Tammy attended a German speaking Catholic school. Betsy was too young for school.
In 1965 the Schiebel family left Europe from Cherbourg by boat with their VW Bus. Upon arrival in the United States, they drove across the country to Seattle WA, where they lived until September of 1967 when Joe got the position at Georgetown University as head of the newly created Slavic Studies Program. Soon they settled into a new home at 3842 Calvert Street NW, Washington DC. Pat began teaching full-time at Holy Trinity Elementary School.
They lived in Taiwan for a couple of years where Joe was, on a scholarship, doing research.
On October 9, 1976, Joe Schiebel died unexpectedly in St. Louis, Missouri while attending the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies convention. He didn’t return home on time and Pat tried many ways to contact him – to no avail. Sometime later the Police arrived saying that he had died in St. Louis.
Pat took a paralegal course at Georgetown University in 1977.
In August 1978 she resigned her teaching position at Holy Trinity, borrowed money and began as a full-time student at Joseph Schiebel, working part-time for Charles Gustafason, a law school professor and served on the editorial board of the American Criminal Law Review.
I believe that it was in 1979 that the Alaska Library of Association asked the Library of Congress if they would send a representative to their annual meeting. LC sent me. In addition to being in Anchorage for a week, I took a 3-week holiday in Snowmass, Colorado.
I asked my cousin Suzie Rosenthal if she knew someone who would like to use my townhouse for a month. She did. She said that her best friend, Patricia Schiebel, had just entered Georgetown Law School and would like a place where she might study away from her three daughters. At law school, she was, by far, the oldest in her class.
In my refrigerator, I had a bottle of Corton-Charlemagne which she drank. Not knowing much about wine, she drank it and replaced it with wine that had the same shaped bottle. In the ‘70s it probably cost about $30. I thought that it was ‘no big deal’ and nothing but funny. I loved telling the story. More later.
Suzie arranged from us to meet at a Mexican restaurant on DC’s southwest waterfront. At that meeting I knew immediately that I had found the right one, that nonsense about not remarrying went out the window. To my joy, she agreed to marry me.
In 1980, we were married by Father James M. English, S. J. at Holy Trinity Catholic Church, Washington DC and took a short honeymoon to Williamsburg VA.
The next May, Pat received her Juris Doctor (cum laude) from Georgetown University School of Law, and in July. Pat took the DC Bar Exam.
Immediately after, we took a camping trip through New England to Nova Scotia in our VW Camper. We visited Swan Island in the Kennebec River, Maine – the ancestral home of Pat’s family on her father’s side (Reed family).
In that same year, Pat was employed on a one-year appointment as Judge Peter H. Wolf’s Law Clerk, DC Superior Court (GS-10).
In December of 1981, Pat was admitted to the D.C. Bar.
From September and October of 1982, Pat accompanied Joe on an official business trip around the world. They visited Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur (where they visited with the family of the late Dorothy (Ho) Howard, Singapore, Jakarta, Bangkok, Rangoon, Kathmandu, New Delhi, Bhutan (as the guest of the Queen Mother), Karachi, Cairo, and Nairobi. (see Travel – Trip 1982 – Introduction.
In October of 1982. Pat was employed as an Assistant Corporation Counsel in the Special Litigation Section of the Office of the Corporation Counsel of the DC Superior Court (GS-I 1). Worked with the Paternity and Child Support Unit.
1983-4. Pat and Joe spent Christmas and New Year’s Eve in London. After which Pat transferred to the Juvenile Section of the Criminal Division where she was promoted to Supervising Attorney in October 1986 (GS-12). And was promoted to GS-13 in 1985
1986 May-June. Joe and Pat went to Bavaria for about three days to visit with the family of the late Joe Schiebel. They then went on to Rome where Joe attended an AGRIS meeting at FAO and Pat celebrated her 50th birthday.
1988 September – Joe attended a meeting of the Association of Research Libraries in York England. Pat’s sister Vicky, and Joe’s sister Carolyn also went and together they spent about two weeks touring rural England.
1989 March. Joe & Pat moved to 1113 Mainsail Drive, Annapolis MD.
1989 June. Pat started a new job at the Federal Trade Commission as a GS-14 staff attorney, Bureau of Consumer Protection, Division of Marketing Practices.
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1995 Pat was promoted to GS-15 5 at the Federal Trade Commission.
During Covid in 2020, Pat was tired of my telling the story about Corton Charlemagne. She asked me to take her to Mill’s Wine and Spirits at the Annapolis Dock. Since no one was allowed in the store, after phoning them, a lady came out to the car. Pat asked her if they had Corton Charlemagne. The employee said, “I will look”. In a few minutes, she came and apologized that they didn’t have a case but had only 2 bottles. Pat said, “I’ll take them” and gave her a credit card. They cost $450 a bottle! She looked at me and said, “I don’t want to hear any more about them.”
Pat retired in 1998
In 2012 we moved to Collington Retirement Community. She has through the years been active in the community including serving as President of the Residents Association.
She also became active in the Drama Committee and has directed plays as well as acting in them. New to her, she was a wonderful actress.
Several years ago, she got macular degeneration in one eye and has been getting a shot in that eye. She has been taking medicine to keep it from moving to the other eye. It didn’t work. Last week her other eye changed and now she needs shots in both eyes. She can still read with only minor distortion – so far.
Last December she found that she had cancer in both breasts and had received many months of treatment. Outwardly, she was stoic. Last month, she was pronounced cancer free.
I can still say that Pat was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me.