Patrick Anthony Gainer

BALTIMORE, MARYLAND - Patrick Anthony Gainer, beloved husband and father, passed away in Baltimore, Maryland on November 28, 2015 at the age of 88. Loving, pious, generous to a fault, humorous, brilliant and talented, Patrick was a retired NASA engineer who loved to recall his work in designing star charts for and with the Mercury astronauts. In addition to his work at NASA, he was oboist for the Peninsula Symphony, Norfolk Symphony, Virginia Symphony and Governor's Palace Orchestra of Colonial Williamsburg. He was an accomplished photographer and photographic researcher. He published several articles about photography, and was a contributing editor for Photo Techniques magazine. He was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, on July 14, 1927, the son of Patrick Ward Gainer, renowned folklorist and West Virginia University English professor, and Antoinette Kizinski. He served in the US Army from 1945 to 1947, was a graduate of West Virginia University, and worked for NASA Langley in Hampton, Virginia from 1952 to 1982. He is survived by five of his six children, 10 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren, including son Patrick, daughters Mary Calame, Alice Standin, Frances Davey, and Christine Barton, brothers Michael and Thomas Gainer, and sister Miriam Goder. Preceding him in death was his beloved wife Rosemary Layman Gainer, with whom he long wished to be reunited. God willing, it is so. A memorial in his honor will be held by family members in the Spring, when his ashes will be interred in Good Shepherd Cemetery, in Tanner, WV. Donations in his honor may be made to the Good Shepherd Catholic Church, 701 Mineral Rd, Glenville, WV 26351, or to West Virginia Public Radio, both of which gave him much joy when he relocated to West Virginia upon his retirement.