Working at Rudy Manufacturing influenced Pat Yauchstetter to pursue a teaching career which spanned 31 years. The factory “was a tough place to work,” said her nephew, Tom Phillips.
She was the last of four children that included Dorothy Carter, Trina Phillips and Ted Yauchstetter when she died Feb. 7 at 85.
Sister-in-law Velma Yauchstetter was city treasurer.
The 1944 Dowagiac graduate not only attended County Normal to become a teacher, she went on to earn a master’s degree. “She didn’t scrape by,” her nephew said, agreeing she could be “strict” in demanding respect. “She and Mrs. Neidlinger shared that reputation.”
Her dad, Harry, worked for Round Oak. Pat grew up on Third Avenue but close enough to the limit they had a little farm with cows and pigs. The outdoors was Miss Yauchstetter’s passion.
She liked wide open spaces — not living in town.
She camped and fished at Pitcher Lake, enjoyed snowmobiling and kept a big garden when she lived on Marcellus Highway.
Yet the last 11 years of her life she spent in the 100 block of Haines, ironically, across the street from where we lived when we married in 1985, until we bought a house in 1987. Walt used to live there.
The neighborhood’s changed a lot, but I knew we had one neighbor in common.
“She was a hard person to get to know,” Jack Przybylinski said, but learned that beneath that gruff exterior beat a generous heart of gold.
“She was an amazing person,” he said.