Patricia “Pat” Doerr (nee Reynolds) passed peacefully at home on January 10, 2024 following a battle with dementia and related illnesses. She was 84 years old.
Pat was born and raised in the Inwood section of Manhattan. As a child she gave the nuns a run for their money at a few different Catholic schools in New York City. Following her graduation from high school and secretarial school, she worked as a secretary for Standard Oil in Rockefeller Center before moving to Elizabeth, New Jersey to start a family with her husband of 58 years, Robert “Bob” Doerr.
Pat and Bob relocated to Middletown, New Jersey in 1973 and planted lifelong roots in the Sunken City neighborhood (IYKYK) where they have lived for 50 years. They met a group of friends in Sunken City that became family. They grew their families together; watched their children fly the coop, marry and have their own children together; mourned their losses together; and, most importantly, partied like rock stars together the whole way through.
While at home with her children, Pat had a number of part-time “side hustles” that maximized her skills as an excellent seamstress and a crafter. She then returned to the working world as a legal secretary at the law firm of Giordano, Halleran & Ciesla. At GH&C, Pat she put her love of writing and grammar to work and was known as a grammarian and a master proofreader of complex legal documents. She made lifelong friends at GH&C.
Pat was kind, smart, irreverent and she had an amazing laugh and sense of humor. Family meant the world to her and she eschewed the snowbird life to remain close to her family in New Jersey. Her love for her children was palpable and she was not afraid to become “Mama Bear” on behalf of her kids when needed. She worked hard to support her children through Catholic schools and college, and she remained devoted to them for the rest of her life. She also loved her extended family deeply and did everything possible to keep connections with her brothers, sister and many nieces and nephews, grand nieces and nephews and their children.
Pat was a devout Catholic. She attended mass weekly and even daily at times. She joined St. Catharine’s Parish in the early 1990s and sang in the choir there for more than 20 years. She made choir friends at St. Catharine’s that she and Bob would travel to Europe with several times. Due to her devotion to the Catholic Church, her nieces and nephews had dubbed her “Sister Pat”.
Pat loved to have fun and was extremely proud of her Irish roots. St. Patrick’s Day was one of her favorite holidays and she especially loved getting back into NYC to go the St. Patrick’s Day parade and celebrate with family and old friends from Inwood. She travelled to Ireland twice and fell in love with the country. She taught her children what it meant to be Irish-American and proud of their roots.
Pat will be truly missed by all that knew her. She is predeceased by her parents, Michael and Rose Reynolds, her brothers Robert (and his wife Geraldine) and Eugene (and his wife Catherine (a.k.a. “Mickey”), her sister Evelyn Burke, her grandniece Molly Reynolds and her grandnephew Gary Hahn. She is survived by her husband, Robert Doerr; her daughter Sharon Sullivan, Sharon’s husband Brian and her beloved grandson, Evan Sullivan; her daughter Sheila Doerr and Sheila’s husband Larry Oxley; her son Michael Doerr, and too many beloved nieces and nephews to name here along with their children and grandchildren.
Visitation will be held on Monday, January 15th from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM at Thompson Memorial Home, 310 Broad Street, Red Bank, NJ 07701. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated on Tuesday, January 16th at 9:15 AM at the Church of St. Catharine, 108 Middletown Road, Holmdel, NJ 07733. Interment will follow the mass at Fair View Cemetery, 456 NJ-35, Red Bank, NJ 07701. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Pat’s name to the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement, https://donate.thewomensalzheimersmovement.org which is dedicated to eradicating Alzheimer’s and dementia in women.
