Psychotherapist and artist Patricia Ann Blair Ryan, a 42-year resident of Great Barrington, MA, died peacefully at her home on Sept. 5th of complications from Alzheimer’s Disease. She was 92 years old.
Patricia was born on February 27th, 1933, at Newton Wellesley Hospital at the height of the 1930s depression. Pat grew up in Watertown, MA, where she was the elder of two sisters. She attended the Hosmer School, the East Junior High and graduated from Watertown High School in 1950. Always an avid reader, Pat was an excellent student. Her mother, Margaret Ann Sullivan Blair (1900-1992), owned and operated a bookstore in Watertown for over 30 years, and Pat’s father, Archibald Malcolm Blair (1902-1977) was her mother’s first bookstore customer.
After graduating from high school, Pat was persuaded by her close friend, Lucia Mastrangelo, to attend Beth Israel Hospital’s School of Nursing in Boston. Before attending nursing school, she worked at Raytheon for a few months with many post WWII refugees and Holocaust survivors who made a lasting impression upon her. Pat graduated from Beth Israel School of Nursing in January 1954 and furthered her education by attending Boston University, graduating Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. degree in 1957. While at Boston University she also studied photography, a lifelong passion and interest.
She met her first husband, Charles Joseph Ryan, Jr. (1933-1978) in an acting class at The Actors Workshop on Newbury Street in Boston led by Alan Levitt. Charles “Chuck” Ryan was an excellent dancer and actor and won a full scholarship to Bennington College to study acting as a “Drama Fellow” before Bennington College became co-educational. After their marriage in 1958 Pat joined Chuck in North Bennington, Vermont, where she worked as a Registered Nurse both in the Bennington College infirmary and at Putnam Memorial Hospital. Their three daughters were all born in Bennington and raised in North Bennington surrounded by a vibrant community of visual and performing artists and academics.
By 1970 Patricia was a single mother working as a psychiatric nurse at United Counseling Services, a professional vocation that was inspired by her early interest in mental health while working at Massachusetts General Hospital’s psychiatric ward during nursing school.
Inspired by her work at United Counseling Services and hoping to advance her career, Pat applied to and was accepted by the Smith College School of Social Work. She graduated with a Master’s degree in Clinical Social Work in 1973 and became a LICSW. She launched her career as a psychotherapist at Berkshire Mental Health Center in Pittsfield, MA, where she blossomed as a clinical social worker and supervisor of social work students. She worked at BMH for 8 years, moving to Pittsfield from Vermont in 1977.
She was an excellent seamstress and made many of the clothes she and her children wore in the 1960s and ‘70s and also sold her work (mod dresses and tunics) at a friend’s boutique in Camden, Maine. She was thrifty and resourceful. One of Pat’s favorite expressions was “Waste Not, Want Not.”
In 1979, with her friend and colleague, Harold Schrager, she started a successful and groundbreaking private mental health practice called Psychotherapy Associates that was located for decades on South Street in Pittsfield. It was the first time clinical psychiatric social workers offered their services in a private practice setting.
In 1983, after meeting Jim Secundy (1944-1994) the man who became her second husband, she moved to Great Barrington, MA. She served on Great Barrington’s planning board, was a board member of the Great Barrington Historical Society and was active in the Sheffield Art League and the Housatonic Valley Art League.
After caring for both her aging mother and for Jim during his struggle with brain cancer, Pat found herself in her early 60s. She spent the next 25 years leading a vibrant, active, creative, and full life. She studied creative writing, metalwork, collage, and painting. In the early 1990s she began to study painting with Joan Griswold. With Joan and other adult art students she travelled extensively throughout Europe on painting trips. Her paintings, weathervanes, and collages have been exhibited at The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Hotchkiss School, and other locations throughout The Berkshires and beyond.
Pat was a tireless worker, a committed feminist, and a lover of life. As a child she studied tap dance and ballet. She learned Tango dance in her 70s and was still dancing in her 80s. She was a practicing therapist both at her home office and in Pittsfield until 2020 when Covid brought her working career to an end at the age of 87.
A professional listener, Patricia Ryan was a pillar of strength and caring to her family, her many patients, clients, and friends. She was a mender of clothes and a mender of souls.
Pat is survived by her three daughters, Eileen Ryan (Guy Holt) of Watertown, MA, Gillian Ryan (Roger MacDonald) of Monterey, MA, and Jessica Ryan Lapinski (Dave Hayes) of Florence, MA, her five grandchildren: Giles (Isabelle (Ethan Hotchkiss), and Charlotte (Lucia Finney) Holt, and Edward “Ned” and Nikolai Lapinski, two great grandchildren, Henrietta and Emmett Stahl Holt, and her former son-in-law, John Lapinski. She was predeceased by her two husbands, Charles Joseph Ryan, Jr. and James Secundy, her sister, Nancy Blair Dota, and an infant son, Adam Blair Ryan. Patricia’s family is most grateful for the full time care provided by Connie Olwande and her family during the final 18 months of Pat’s life.
Donations in Patricia Blair Ryan’s name can be made to the Great Barrington Historical Society, https://gbhistory.org/contact-us/ or WAMC public radio: https://www.wamc.org/support-wamc.
Calling Hours will be held from 4:00 – 6:00pm at Finnerty and Stevens Funeral Home in Great Barrington on Tuesday, Sept. 9, https://www.finnertyandstevens.com/. A green burial will take place at Elmwood Cemetery.
A memorial service will be held at First Congregational Church in Stockbridge, MA on Sunday, Sept. 21 at 2 p.m. with a reception to follow. https://stockbridgeucc.org/