Retired DOE manager and Kennewick Woman of Year has died

Wendy Culverwell
·2 min read
Pat Turner, 1978 Kennewick Woman of the Year, has died at age 89. She was a co-founder of the Columbia Basin Badger Club, which conducts forums on local, state and international issues.

Patricia “Pat” Turner, who was honored as Kennewick Woman of the Year in the late 1970s, died Dec. 19 in Kennewick. She was 89.

She was born in Cody, Wyo., and her family moved to the Tri-Cities in 1947 when she was a teen, according to a 2016 obituary for her brother, C.D. Hooker.

She graduated from Kennewick High School in 1952 and later worked as a Department of Energy manager at the Hanford nuclear site.

Friends called her a “delightful” woman who worked fervently to improve the Tri-Cities but who seldom if ever stepped into the spotlight.

The spotlight found her anyway.

In 1978, she was named Kennewick Woman of the Year at a ceremony at the Tri-City Country Club, now the Zintel Creek Golf Club.

The citation noted her work as a security operations officer for DOE in Richland, her service on the Columbia Basin College advisory board, her advisory role to the Kennewick School District’s business department and her work to coordinate a Toastmistress conference in Richland that year.

The same year saw her honored with a special achievement work performance award, when DOE selected her to be its federal “woman’s program coordinator.”

More recently, she created a lasting impact as a founding member of the Columbia Basin Badger Club, the civic organization created in 2008 to promote a forum for discussing and debating important topics.

“She did the hard work, recruiting volunteers, staffing the registration table for live forums, and helping members and guests,” Kirk Williamson, the club’s president, told the Tri-City Herald. “More recently, she was the resident expert on the Badger Club’s member relations software. Pat was the person who made things go smoothly. Her people skills were exceptional. It was a privilege to work with her.”

Mueller’s Tri-Cities Funeral Home in Kennewick is handling her arrangements. A memorial service is planned at 1 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 4, at Living Room Community Church, 1409 S. Garfield St., Kennewick.

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