PATRICIA (RYAN) DURBIN

Class of 1958
​Inducted in 2014

Pat was inducted into the SHSAA Hall of Fame in 2014.

Pat Durbin is a retired computer consultant, community volunteer and history expert. She was a founding member of the Victorian Society in America-Northwest Chapter based in Townsend, WA, and has served as treasurer and then president since.

She was a Jefferson County Historical Society Board Trustee and directed the town’s Victorian Festival for several years. She is an active member and past president of the local chapter of Soroptimist International, whose mission is to improve the lives of women and girls in local communities and around the world. They raise funds for victims of domestic violence and trafficking of women. They also award scholarships to females in need and for women head-of-households returning to the workforce. She was nominated as Port Townsend’s “Citizen of the Year” for her volunteer efforts in these and other charitable organizations.

She has worked on numerous preservation projects in her community and across Washington State. Pat and her husband restored an 1891 Victorian home, which won the statewide preservation award. During her long computer career in the airline and banking business, she taught computer programming at UCLA’s extension program. Pat and her husband served as computer consultants in a variety of locations including Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, South Africa and Singapore. She continues her volunteer efforts and remains active in preservation and advocacy for women while working part-time as a consultant.

Pat’s favorite hobby is choral music and she credits this love to SHS teacher Roland Hinrichs. She also credits her successful career to her training in journalism, history and English at SHS!