Patti Jean Stowell was born on April 25, 1957, in Montreal, Canada, where she lived until her family returned to Mercer Island, Washington, when she was five years old. Her memories of growing up on Mercer Island included deer swimming over from Seward Park and frequenting the saltlick in her family’s backyard, hours of play in the ravine behind her south-end home, and swimming for the Mercer Island Country Club team. As a young teen, she made small pies from the blackberries she picked in her neighborhood and sold them to workmen building houses across the street. Her older brothers took her on backpacking trips when she was still small and backpacking became a lifelong passion. During her high school years she often went hiking in the Cascades with just her dog, seeking out an alpine lake to enjoy, but she was a popular member of the Mercer Island High School cheerleading squad, too.
When she graduated from high school in 1975, Patti spent a year at Washington State University, joining the Gamma Phi Beta sorority, before returning to Seattle to attend the University of Washington, where she earned a Bachelor’s and then a Master’s degree in Social Work. She spent a year living on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and doing social work in the neonatal intensive care unit at Beth Israel Hospital in Newark, NJ, before returning to Seattle once more and working at Harborview Medical Center. During her 30+ years at Harborview, Patti was a highly respected clinician, supervisor and trainer. She served on numerous committees, including Ethics, Palliative Care and Pediatrics. She was known
for her attention to detail, her ability to see the big picture in any situation, and her strong ethical and legal expertise. She played a central role in establishing many of the policies and procedures that guide Harborview’s social work today. While she loved the intensity and challenge of her work, what she loved most was helping people.
Once she was back in the Northwest, Patti returned to backpacking and moved eventually into mountain climbing. When a fall into a crevasse on Mt. Rainier left her with a broken ankle, she decided she needed more formal climbing instruction, so she signed up for guided climbs on Rainier and enrolled in a number of snow and ice seminars. After traveling to Mexico to climb the volcanoes Popocatepetl and Pico de Orizaba, she joined the Boeing Employees Alpine Society’s (BOEALPS) basic climbing class, which furthered her desire to be in the mountains. When the class ended, she started climbing with two of her classmates, one of whom was Brian Weiss, the man she would soon marry. They took another climbing class together but before it was finished, Patti was off to Alaska to climb Mt. McKinley (Denali). Two weeks after she reached the summit on July 2, 1989, she and Brian were engaged on Mt. Rainier. They married on July 7 of the following year.
Over the next few years, the young couple had two children, Kyle McKinley and Annalise Rose, and Patti devoted herself to them. By taking them on hikes when they were still young as well as annual camping trips to the ocean, she taught them to love the outdoors as she did. Among the many activities she supported them in were Boy Scout backpacking trips to Philmont Scout Ranch and “50-milers” to Barkley Sound and Bowron Lakes. In all they did, she was extremely proud of them.
In addition to being an avid gardener, Patti loved animals, especially dogs, and she was an important part of her family’s efforts to raise puppies for Guide Dogs for the Blind. She brought a loving and caring spirit to everything she did and she was known everywhere for her warm energy and embracing smile. The word people used most often to describe her was: amazing.
Patti was diagnosed with endometrial cancer in early 2012. She fought hard to beat it and held onto hope of living many years with it in remission. She died peacefully at home with family at her side on August 29, 2014.
Patti is preceded in death by her parents, Dean Payson Stowell and Lucile Eleanor (Samsel) Stowell, and her brother Jan. She is survived by her husband Brian Weiss, her children Kyle and Annalise, her brothers Scott Stowell of Spokane and Kim Stowell of Seattle, and her sister Sally Taylor of Saintfield, Northern Ireland.
Please join Patti’s family for a celebration of her life at 11:00 a.m. on October 11, 2014, at:
Mercer Island Presbyterian Church
3605 84th Ave SE
Mercer Island, WA 98040
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you consider making a donation in Patti’s memory to one of the following organizations:
Mercer Island Presbyterian Church Youth Ministries, 3605 84th Ave SE, Mercer Island, WA 98040
Or