While we were all getting ready to head down to the NOTRA Nationals, I discovered that Pat Grosh, long time breeder of professional and amateur racing greyhounds (for over 50 years, no less) had died last December at the age of 82. I met Pat several times in the early 2000s while she was still competing, and was always impressed not only by her beautiful, functional and fast hounds, but by her friendly and kind demeanor. Not knowing much more about her than what her kennel listing on greyhound data says, I searched around for some contacts and was lucky enough to find her sons email address (thanks to Michele Mohan Houghton). Marc Zwillinger sent me photos and an excerpt from a computer history book. Apparently Pat was the first female lecturer at UC Berkeley in the computer science department, and also one of the first programmers to work on the Univac-1. Heres the what the excerpt said: Nevertheless our IBM-650 became a prime newspaper, television, radio and newsreel photo opportunity of St. Louis. One of our programmers, Pat Zwillinger, even brought along Athena, her racing greyhound, to pose standing with her paws on the console of the machine, looking at the flashing lights and eagerly panting for a message from the Russian canine in space. I did put together a memorial for Pat, which unfortunately didnt make it into the Nationals catalogue as planned. Ive attached it here, although the photos I had didnt fare well when the Word version was scanned, so my apologies. Marc provided some additional pictures of his Mom which I received too late for the catalogue but which I thought those of you that knew her would enjoy seeing. What a lovely woman she was, in every way. As near as I can figure by working through pedigrees of her more recent dogs like Lightning Storm and Chiaroscuro, I believe she bred at least five generations of greyhounds, some of whom raced and won at Multnomah, other tracks and in NOTRA. Tracy Rudzitis Sleet and Fire were from Pats last litter, and Im sure she would have much more information to offer about Pats history and life. Can anyone else share some stories? Id love to hear them.
Posted on: Mon, 10 Nov 2014 22:55:45 +0000
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