My mom, Pat Fleetwood-Walker, who has died aged 95 from a stroke, was a volunteer in Birmingham proper as much as the tip of her life.
Following a profession in instructing and college administration, she turned a member of the Prevention First Residents’ Panel, a bunch of volunteers supporting Birmingham metropolis council’s commissioning course of for providers and dealing to take care of and lift requirements of help for weak folks. A lifelong carer for her daughter, Pat was a robust advocate for these with vulnerabilities and used her visionary pondering to champion their wants.
Born in Birmingham, to Katie (nee Lang), who helped her dad and mom run a candy store, and Karl Fleetwood, a mechanical engineer, Pat was fortunate to outlive her early years, when she nearly died of pneumonia. Her dad and mom inspired a eager curiosity on the earth and, in an age the place few girls entered increased schooling, Pat – a pupil at St Paul’s convent faculty in Edgbaston – gained a scholarship in 1947 to review botany at Birmingham College.
She went on to finish a PhD in fungal crop illnesses, and later, in 1987, a grasp’s in schooling to reinforce her work creating progressive instructing supplies for Birmingham College medical faculty.
As an akela main a cub pack in a disadvantaged space of town, Pat met and married Colin Fleetwood-Walker, a scout chief, in 1953. Colin was an architect, eldest son of the portrait painter Bernard Fleetwood-Walker and a survivor of the second world warfare Arctic convoys. That they had six kids: Susan (born as Pat’s PhD was accomplished), Judith, Becky, Johnny, Ruth and me.
The Seventies and 80s had been a turbulent time for the household with many life-changing challenges: not least of which was the demise of Johnny at 17 in 1976 in a bike accident. This was adopted by Colin’s power sickness and early demise in 1987.
As the principle breadwinner, Pat taught science in secondary colleges, labored with the academic providers workforce at Birmingham College, after which at Aston College in Birmingham. There she was head of extension schooling, working with teachers (in each the US and UK) and business to develop tutored video instruction and supplies to assist innovation in companies.
Pat retired in 1994 however continued to work in selling sustainable communities within the West Midlands. The Prevention First Residents’ Panel, on which she had served since round 2004, was awarded the King’s Award for Voluntary Service in November 2023.
Born as girls bought the vote, she was a long-term Labour occasion member and delighted to see them win with 11 girls serving within the cupboard simply days earlier than her demise. An instructional and constructive thinker, Pat attributed her lengthy life to the NHS, luck, and household and mates.
She is survived by 5 kids, 10 grandchildren and 10 great-granddaughters.
