Patricia DuBois of West Wareham passed away on Friday, May 22nd at age 98 of a heart attack. She was at the time of her death principal broker/owner at Pat DuBois Realty. 

Born in Reading to Edward J. and Margaret (Shortell) Dahill in 1921, (at which time the Model T Ford still had 6 years left on its initial production run), she grew up in Taunton, the fourth of six children. She was predeceased by her parents and her siblings, Helen Dahill, Edward Dahill, Marybeth Dahill, Arthur Dahill, and Sister Margaret Imelda. 

Pat could sell ice at the north pole and made her first deal at age 14. Balloon tire bikes were a new thing, and Pat wanted one. So she took $5 to the bike shop and walked out with a $10 bike, after negotiations to pay 50 cents each week from baby-sitting money. A harbinger of things to come. 

She attended Taunton High and Bridgewater State, graduating with a B.S. in Education. She then taught elementary school in South Yarmouth and, while working her summer job at Billy Cox’s Sea Grill, she met Victor A. DuBois Jr., a sailor just out of the Coast Guard and working at the P-Town Inn as a cook. They wed the following year. 

Three daughters later, Pat looked around a two-family in Melrose and said, “Nope, I’m going back to work.” That led her to selling Dutchmaid Clothing. By the time she was done, Pat had brought Vic in with her and they had risen to be the national sales managers of the firm. 

Pat re-invented herself as a real estate broker and G.R.I. educator in her later years, being the principal of both Pat DuBois Realty and Sippican R.E. School. Pat always went the extra mile. She once got a bank to figure in the future value of some unborn calves to qualify a client for a loan, and her students consistently passed their exams, fortified by the homemade baked goods offered at break during classes. 

Pat also instructed at the Realtor’s Institute, was a past officer of Toastmasters International, as well as being a eucharistic minister. 

Pat was a simple gal. Work, church, more work, and family. She may have talked a lot, but when push came to shove, she walked the walk, every time. She didn’t preach, she practiced. Pat would chat up anyone, anytime, truly the most self-effacing person you could wish to meet. She believed in helping, always tried, and usually did. Pat was never happier than when she was beating to a stiff breeze on Buzzards Bay in her little green H- 12, Trish. Or poking carefully down Mt. Cranmore - (she took up skiing at 50), a hankie up each sleeve. Her door and her heart were always open, the cookie jar full. 

Pat is survived by four of her five children, Margaret Ann Conners, Mary Pat Anderson and her husband David, Theresa Jane Gustus, James V. DuBois, and (John- lost at birth), along with 11 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild. 

A private memorial mass will be celebrated at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Mattapoisett on Friday June 12th at 11:00 a.m. The service will be live-streamed via the St. Anthony’s Facebook page, so please attend in safety. 

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Operation Smile, 3641 Faculty Boulevard, Virginia Beach, VA 23453. Arrangements by Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, Wareham. To leave a message of condolence, visit www.ccgfuneralhome.com