I wrote about Pat Child after he passed away late last month. Yesterday was the memorial service.
It was a dreadful day – cold with icy rain. The church was packed.
Pat got what few of us ever will get, notice from God. So, he was able to decide what he wanted ever he died. He asked for “smells and bells” at St. Thomas Episcopal, the church he was baptized and married in. He got both, with more incense than I’d sniffed since Moby Grape and The Grateful Dead played the Fillmore East in 1967.
Among the tributes, Diane Smith’s eulogy stands out. Diane is an elegant writer with a masterful delivery. I am attaching her words below this entry. I think you’ll understand the flavor of Pat if you read what she wrote.
There are two reasons we’re all sad Pat is gone. First, he was an American original. Second, he represents an era that is gone. He was our bridge back to the ‘golden age’ of television news. It wasn’t necessarily a better era as much as it was gentler, more human time.