Patricia Sue Hinman, age 81, died Tuesday, September 24, 2024 while under hospice care at the home she shared with her husband Dave.
Patricia (Pat) was born on May 9th, 1943 in Dumont, Iowa to Jesse Vonnie Tiffany (a home economics schoolteacher), and Howard Milton Tiffany (a traveling salesman). Howard passed away suddenly of a heart attack when Pat was 8 years old. This event had a profound impact on Patricia as it left an unfillable hole in her heart but was the genesis of the deep and devoted bond she shared throughout the course of her entire life with her mother, Jesse, who raised Pat as a single mother.
Jesse and Pat lived in Chapin, Iowa where Jesse continued to teach Home Economics, until they were forced to change schools due to school consolidation. They moved to Mondamin, Iowa, where Jesse taught, and Pat graduated high school in 1961. Pat attended Wartburg College and studied business education and later earned a Masters degree in education from the University of Northern Iowa.
After graduation, Pat would go on to accept a high school teaching position where she taught classes in typing and shorthand in the small rural farming community of St. Ansgar, Iowa. It was there, while teaching at St. Ansgar High that she met the vocational agriculture teacher - Dave Hinman. Dave took an interest in Pat and asked her out on a date to the movies - twice - and she declined - twice. But on the third try, Pat accepted and a year later, in June of 1968 they married. In 1969 their oldest daughter, Jennifer Flava was born, and in 1972, their youngest daughter, Rachel Beth was born. In 1970, with the help of their families, Pat and Dave were able to purchase a home on a rural patch of land just outside of St. Ansgar with the address Rural Route 2. Five years later, Dave quit his career in teaching to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a livestock farmer. This farm in rural Northern Iowa was the place where Pat and Dave would raise their daughters, where they would earn a living as a family farm and be the place countless family memories were created. This farm was the place Pat, Dave, and their daughters would forever refer to as home.
Pat continued to be a schoolteacher for 43 years - teaching a vast array of subjects from keyboarding skills to economics. As a teacher, she always had command of her classrooms. She was firm, but fair, and had an uncanny ability to inject her dry, sometimes dark, sense of humor to win over even the most rebellious students. As one student so aptly remembers her,
“She was the kind of teacher never afraid to speak her mind. She rocked the tough bitty scowl with the best of them. But it was the times when students weren't pissing around that her infectious spunk and boisterous laugh filled the room that I remember most vividly - all while she was rocking some turtleneck sweater embroidered with her beloved West Highland Terrier dogs.”
As a teacher, she was always a champion for the underdog and truly wanted to help every student that spent time in her classroom become the best version of themselves. She earned the nickname “Patty” and rarely flinched when students called her by that nickname because she intrinsically knew it was coming from a place of reverence and endearment.
In January of 2002, Pat and Dave’s first grandchild, Graham Oliver Miller was born to their daughter, Jennifer, and son-in-law, John - followed by a granddaughter, Genevieve Olivia Miller in April of 2004. In 2007, John and Jennifer moved from Minneapolis to McKinney, Texas with their family for better job prospects, and to escape the cold Minnesota winters. Despite their deeply rooted fears of having a starving artist in the family, Pat and Dave’s youngest daughter, Rachel, moved to San Francisco in 1995 and forged a successful career in design and technology, where she still lives and works today.
In 2010, Pat and Dave were at a crossroads. Pat had retired from teaching, and Dave had successfully pivoted his career from livestock farming to real estate. While Pat and Dave loved their farm and Iowa, they missed their children, and they longed to escape the brutal Iowa winters. They were ready for a change and decided to move to McKinney, Texas to be near their oldest daughter, Jennifer and their grandchildren. Once in Texas, Dave continued to sell real estate, while Pat adjusted to being a retired teacher. The transition wasn’t easy for Pat. She missed interacting with students. She also missed sitting on her front porch at her old farmhouse in Iowa, watching the neighboring cornfields flourish in the Midwest summer sun. But come winter, she would emphatically proclaim - “I miss lots of things about Iowa, but I definitely do not miss the cold winters and the -30F windchill!”
In September of 2017, Pat had a stroke that would change the course of the rest of her life. While she was able to regain her mobility with the help of a walker, the parts of her brain that were damaged by the stroke had a significant impact on her executive function and overall motivation and mood regulation for the remainder of her life. While she had struggled with depression and anxiety throughout her life, the stroke amplified these mental health conditions - which deeply impacted the quality of the remainder of her life.
For the next seven years, Pat’s health was in a slow decline. Her husband, Dave, became her loving caretaker - balancing her care needs with the demands of his career in real estate. Patricia entered in-home hospice in August of 2024, and passed away on September 24, 2024. She passed away at home, surrounded by her family when she drew her last breath.
Pat will be remembered as a loving wife and mother, a teacher, and a champion for the underdog. She was a practical midwestern woman who, while introverted, had an empathic heart, and a love and curiosity for people, their stories and the human spirit. She loved her husband and her children deeply and will be missed by everyone she touched.
Her life will be cherished in the hearts of her husband, Dave Hinman; children, Jennifer Miller and Rachel Hinman; son-in-law, John Miller; grandchildren, Graham and Genevieve Miller; and grand dogs, Maya and Blue.
In lieu of flowers the family asks for donations to be made to the Anxiety & Depression Association of America.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday, September 28, 2024 at the First Christian Church in McKinney. The family will receive friends after the service for a visitation. Another memorial service will be held in St. Ansgar, Iowa on October 9, 2024.