Patricia Jo Petersen

Patricia Jo Petersen passed away peacefully and surrounded by her loving family as a result of Alzheimer’s Disease on March 18, 2025. Patti brought light, love, and the gift of music to all she touched. She was joyful, vibrant, wise, curious, a loving spouse, an incredible mother and grandmother, and a loyal friend. Patti was born in Portland, Oregon to Joe and Glee McQuaid and attended Beaumont Grade School and Grant High School. She graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelors in Music and from Lewis and Clark College with a Bachelors in Piano Performance, where she studied with Nellie Tholen. She married Jim Petersen, the love of her life, in 1964. They spent six years in the Air Force living in Arizona, Germany and California, during which time their daughters Wendy and Laurie were born. They returned to Portland in 1970 and moved to Bend in 1980. Music was Patti’s great love and vocation. She taught piano for fifty-five years, inspiring hundreds of students to perform, teach, play, and appreciate music all their lives. Her students remember her as a teacher uniquely able to combine rigor with kindness and draw out their fullest musical expression. She was President of the Central Oregon and the Oregon Music Teachers Associations, adjudicated piano students throughout Oregon, and was selected a Foundation Fellow of the Music Teachers National Association. Patti also played solo piano recitals and performed with both the Cascade Music Festival and the Sunriver Music Festival. Patti loved to hike, ski and travel with Jim, with favorite places including Paris (where she spent a year as an exchange student), Vail, Italy, and Ireland. She was a women’s bible study leader at Westside Church and enjoyed her time in Allied Arts and PEO. Patti was full of delight in all beauty, from a Chopin melody, to a sunset on Cannon Beach, the blue water on the Metolius River, or a hummingbird on her beloved flowers. Patti’s joyful spirit and light-filled essence were a gift to all in her circle and will continue to live on in the hearts of her family, friends, and students. Patti is survived by her husband Jim, daughters Wendy Petersen-Boring of Corvallis, Oregon, and Laurie Pittmon of Bend, Oregon. Also surviving are granddaughter Emily Boring and grandsons Aaron Boring, Max Pittmon, and Sam Pittmon. A Celebration of Life service will be held on May 8th at 1:00 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church in Bend. In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Young Artists Scholarship Program – Sunriver Music Festival or Alzheimer's Foundation of America. Arrangements handled by Niswonger-Reynolds Funeral Home, 105 NW Irving Ave., Bend OR 97703

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Patricia Jo Petersen

May 24, 1940 - March 18, 2025