Patricia Joan Funnell Pfalzer, beloved wife of Dr. Frank A. Pfalzer Jr., died on Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2017, at The Retreat on Amelia Island surrounded by her family.
Pat was born in Buffalo, N.Y., on June 28, 1928.The family moved to Eggertsville, N.Y. in 1929. She graduated from St. Benedict School, The Sacred Heart Academy (1945), D’Youville College (1949) and did postgraduate studies at Buffalo State College.
She married Frank in 1953 and taught kindergarten until March 1955, when she began to raise her family of three girls and three boys. Pat lived in Alabama while Frank was stationed at Fort McCellan Hospital after he returned from Korea. The Pfalzers then lived in the Town of Tonawanda, Williamsville and East Amherst in New York before retiring to Amelia Island in 1989.
Pat loved being a housewife, mother and grandmother. Everyone loved her smile and her kind soul. She enjoyed golf, tennis, cross-country skiing and, above all, painting. Several of her paintings hang in homes in Florida, western New York, Minnesota and Muskoka, Ontario, where they had a cabin for 23 years.
Pat is survived by her husband, Frank; her brother, Robert Funnell; her five children, Nancy J. (Bill) Swartzman, Peter A. (Liz), Dr. David F. (Jill), Mary Jo Malik (Bill Jensen) and Marta E. (Jeff) Jackson; and her nine grandchildren, Matthew, Daniel Malik, Thomas, Cory Nelson, Emily, Spencer Jackson, Danika Jackson, Sydney Malik and Morgan Jackson.
She was preceded in death by her son, William, and brothers, John and Richard.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 4, at St. Pius X Catholic Church, 1700 N. French Road, Getzville, N.Y.
Memorials in Pat’s name can be made to the Community Hospice Foundation, 4266 Sunbeam Road, Building 100, Jacksonville, FL 32257; Alzheimer’s Society at alz.org; or Kenmore Mercy Hospital Foundation, 2950 Elmwood Ave., Kenmore, NY 14217.
Dengler, Roberts, Perna Funeral Home, Kenmore, N.Y.