Patricia Bailey Kotrick, like most college students, is nearing the end of one semester and looking forward to the next. However, compared to her peers, Kotrick brings a wealth of life experience to the lectures at Harrisburg Area Community College’s Lancaster campus.
You see, Kotrick is eighty-three.
Naturally, the first thing that people ask her is, “Why?” Why is she wasting her golden years writing term papers and reading textbooks?
Why not, then?
Before the coal mining firm where Andy worked folded in the 1980s, Kotrick and her husband resided in western Pennsylvania. In pursuit of employment, they relocated to Lancaster County. In total, they had been married for 52 years when he passed away from cancer in 2014.
Kotrick felt aimless and lost as a widow. She was then inspired to follow her passion of writing a book by a friend from her church. She therefore started taking classes at HACC in late August 2018 at the age of 77, starting with English and creative writing.
Patricia Bailey Kotrick, 83, attends the Lancaster campus of Harrisburg Area Community College. (Photo submitted)Kotrick, Patricia Bailey
She completed the children’s book Mischievous Pandas: Curious Adventures two years ago. However, neither her love of writing nor her time in college ended when her book about a panda named Cuddles and his pal Ricky was published.
Kotrick has studied a wide range of subjects, such as criminal justice, psychology, mythology, philosophy, and history. The latter will help her build the murder mystery she is writing, she hopes.
In May, she intends to complete 30 credits and earn a liberal arts certificate. After that, she intends to immediately resume her studies with the goal of earning an associate’s degree and another 30 credits.
Kotrick does more than just attend classes. She is quite good at them. She recently received induction into the Phi Theta Kappa Honor Society, which requires a minimum grade point average of 3.5, and has had As in the majority of her coursework.
When she graduated from high school in 1959, she declared that she would not be attending college. When Kotrick was seven years old, their mother was killed by a drunk driver, leaving her and her sister to grow up with their grandparents.
She started working after graduating, but she never forgot her grandfather’s maxim: Try your hardest.
It appears that the written word was ingrained in her from an early age. She started out as a secretary and progressed to positions as office manager, linotype operator, photographer, editor, and general manager during her more than 20 years at the Barnesboro Star, a weekly newspaper.
She then operated her own newspaper, The Weekly Sun, out of her house for three years. She spent 15 years working as a keyboarder at a publishing company after relocating to Lancaster.
She also has two daughters, is a grandma, a devoted Catholic, and enjoys cooking, crocheting, and decorating her immaculate home. Her statement, “I can’t stand sitting at home doing nothing,” is therefore not surprising.
Kotrick said she enjoys going to lessons and gets along well with both the teachers and her much younger peers.
When someone inquires as to why she is at HACC, she responds, “I wouldn’t be attending school if I didn’t enjoy it.”
ESHELMAN, Nancy: [email protected]
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