Pat AuyongReserves Specialist
It is tempting to look for a prominent thread or "story" in Pat Auyong's life. She was born in Monterey, California among scenes straight out of John Steinbeck's Cannery Row, so she grew up in one of the continent's more spectacular natural playgrounds. She studied English literature at Berkeley, traveled widely across the country and around the world, and now lives and plays in the verdant Northwest. Perhaps the only way to generalize about Pat's life so far is that it has been lush and full and filled with sensuous experiences. In a word, idyllic.
Pat, as she describes her formative years, grew up before it was fashionable to make lots of money. Her father's family lived in Monterey for at least three generations before him. In the late '50s the sardines disappeared and her father lost his job as a foreman. Pat still managed to attend UC Berkeley, though, and after working at nearby Ft. Ord for a year joined six other passengers on an American freighter to Yokahama to visit her sister. One of Pat's fondest memories is the elaborate Japanese dinner the captain held for the crew and Pat's family -- especially when following the meal he burst into his lush Irish tenor singing voice!
After spending a couple more months in Japan before hopping a freighter back to the U.S., a trip that included ports of call in Kyoto and Seoul, Pat began data processing for a team of psychologists, and later reading weather maps, at the Naval Post-Graduate School in Monterey. During this stretch of six years, which also included computer programming and operations research for a war gaming unit, Pat met and married Stephen, an Army officer in training at the Army's language school in Monterey.
Stephen's first assignment after they married took them to yet another idyll, Hawaii, for two years. While there Pat worked in a data analysis program for an anti-submarine warfare unit. Other stops included Kansas, Monterey again, and Thailand for a year, where their first child was born. Yet another strong memory is associated with the Thailand tour of duty. Steve, a protocol officer, brought Pat to a royal banquet where each guest was assigned a personal servant for the evening!
Over the next three-and-a-half years there were more posts and more children, Stephanie and David. Finally, Steve retired out of Ft. Lewis and the Auyongs retired in this area. The kids all pretty much grew up here, all adore the area, and all call it home. David is a physician at Duke Medical Center after having attended both Washington State University and the University of Washington. Stephanie is an accountant for the Disney Corporation in Burbank, a marathon runner & graduate of UW, and a world traveler in her own right. And Valerie attended Western Washington, has been very active in Campus Crusade for Christ, and has three children of her own.
"All three children," says Pat, "are very capable and made learning fun." No doubt international travel are important elements in their lives, too. And loving parents who have helped create idyllic lives for them.