Pat Schrom

| February 15, 2008 8:00 PM

Pat Schrom (84), resident of Grant County since 1951, died in an auto accident Friday, Feb. 8, 2008, while driving to a board meeting in Ephrata. Born Patricia Moore in Chicago, Ill. on July 28, 1923, Pat met John Schrom in Chicago in 1948 while he was visiting relatives there. After a long distance correspondence relationship they married on April 21, 1951, in Chicago. The "City Girl" moved to the farm at Smyrna. The neighbors made bets about how long she would last there. (The longest bet was 6 months.) Pat dug her roots into the community which was developing with Columbia Basin Project water coming to the Royal Slope. She was a mover in establishing Grant County Royal Slope Port District No. 2 and Fire Districts 9, 10, No. 11. After an unsuccessful bid for Grant County Commissioner in 1986, she was appointed to the Grant County Board of Equalization in March of 1987. Politically active, she chaired the Grant County Democrats for many years. She served on the Big Bend Community College Board of Trustees from 1992 to 2003, on BBCC Foundation Board from 2003 to 2006, and was currently a 20-year member of the Grant County Board of Equalization. She is survived by her three sons, Alan at the farm in Smyrna, Bob and Terese at the farm in Smyrna, Michael and Geri of Othello and five grandchildren, Nikki, Brian, Coreen, Brett, and Neesha. She was preceded in death by her parents R.J. and Vera Moore, husband John, sister Joan Gorski, and granddaughter, Sarah.

Rosary will be said at St. Michael The Archangel Catholic Church in Royal City on Monday, Feb.18, 2008, at 7 p.m. The funeral Mass of the Resurrection will be at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Moses Lake at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008.

For a donation in her honor, please make check out to "BBCC Foundation in memory of Patricia Schrom" and mail to Big Bend Community College Foundation 7662 Chanute St. NE, Moses Lake, WA 98837. All checks made out to the foundation in her name will be used to fund book scholarships for nursing students at the Big Bend School of Nursing.