Bertha Ann Pataky

On July 7, 2022, Bertha (Bert) Pataky passed away at the age of 96 in Woodstock, Georgia where she had moved in 2019 to be closer to family. She was a native New Yorker, born in Brooklyn on April 21, 1926 to Hungarian immigrant parents, John Pataky and Anna Musatics Pataky. Together with her older sister, Margaret, she grew up helping her parents in the family shoe store in Queens. Her parents, who instilled in her a love of learning, deeply valued the free public education available in America. She excelled at Lincoln High School in Brooklyn and later attended New York University where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in biology in 1949 and a Master of Art in secondary education in 1952, at which time only 4% of women in the United States held graduate degrees.

After one year teaching in the rural Upper Peninsula of Michigan, she continued her career as a biology teacher at Roslyn High School on Long Island in New York during the 1952-53 school year and remained a faculty member there until her retirement in the spring of 1991. Participating in a Fulbright Teacher Exchange, she spent the 1960-61 school year at the Tiffins Girls School in Kingston-Upon-Thames in England. During that year, she was able to meet Queen Elizabeth (born the exact same day as Bert) who was attending a reception celebrating the 400th anniversary of the chartering of the school.

Bert enjoyed spending time in New York City and loved the arts community. She regularly attended theater, symphony, opera, and dance performances, and enjoyed spending time perusing museum exhibits and street fairs. She traveled to Scandinavia, Western Europe, Russia, Oceana, and Mexico, among other places. Besides all of her active pursuits, Bert was an avid reader.

Because of her sense of humor and her caring and compassionate personality, Bert’s life was filled with many lifelong friends. She was a loving “Aunt Bert” to her nieces, Patti Cummings and Julie Pearson-Clarke, nephew, Michael Pearson, great-nieces, Flannery and Rosemary Pearson-Clarke, and to her godchild, Pat Allison Betchley, and many extended family members. She was preceded in death by her parents, John and Anna Pataky, sister and brother-in-law, Margaret and Robert Pearson, and her nephew, Michael Pearson.

Bert spent her adult life as a resident of Roslyn, New York and will be laid to rest at the Roslyn Cemetery; a celebration of life gathering will be held later this year. In lieu of flowers, please consider making a donation in her honor to the Michael Pearson Memorial Architecture Prize at Drexel University. Give online at http://giving.drexel.edu/Pearson or by check payable to Drexel University. Write “Michael Pearson Memorial Prize/Westphal College” on the memo line of the check and mail to Drexel University, P.O. 8215 Philadelphia, PA 19101-9684.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.nationalcremation.com/location/atlanta for the Pataky family.