Patricia H. Ferguson

SANTA FE, N.M. - Patricia H. Ferguson, of Santa Fe, N.M., died Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017, of congestive heart failure.

She was born in Lockport, N.Y., Aug. 25, 1929, daughter of Richard Savely Head and Virginia (Buterbaugh) Head. A younger brother, Robert Head, of Houston Texas, predeceased her in 2006.

Patti/Patricia spent her early years in Brooklyn N.Y., moving to Falls Church, Va. in her teens. She attended Western High School in Washington, D.C., graduating in 1946. At Western HS, while interviewing area students for a radio program, she met her future husband, Glenn W. Ferguson (Bethesda Chevy Chase HS, '46). They dated through college. Mrs. Ferguson graduated from Mary Washington College (now Univ. of Mary Washington) in June 1950 and married in that month.

Mrs. Ferguson shared her husband's diverse career in U.S. government, academic, and non-profit work. She accompanied him to the Philippines during the Korean War and subsequently lived overseas in Thailand (with the Peace Corps, 1961–63), Kenya (where Mr. Ferguson was U.S. Ambassador, 1966–69), Munich (RFE-RL, 1978–82) and Paris, where Mr. Ferguson was President of the American University of Paris (1992–94.)

While her husband served as President of the University of Connecticut (1973–78), Mrs. Ferguson earned her MA in Sociology (Gerontology). She helped develop and fund Juniper Hill retirement center, now the Mansfield Retirement Center, on the board of which she served 20 years later. Mrs. Ferguson volunteered with the International Refugee Committee in Bangkok in 1980, and in 1987 spent several months in Niamey, Niger as a consultant for VOCA, assisting a cooperative for local artisans.

The Fergusons owned a home in Westerly R.I., where Mrs. Ferguson served on the board of the Westerly Land Trust, for more than 20 years. In 1998, they moved to Santa Fe, N.M. Mrs. Ferguson then served on the boards of Aid to Artisans, Cornerstones preservation group, and the Governor's Mansion Foundation.

Mrs. Ferguson cheerfully moved her household more than 20 times in her married life. A tireless and intrepid traveler, she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro twice. In the last two years before her death, she visited Cuba, Mexico, the Panama Canal, UAE, the south Pacific, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, and Namibia.

Glenn Ferguson died in Santa Fe in December, 2007. Mrs. Ferguson moved from her home near Bishop's Lodge Road to El Castillo late in 2013. She is survived by her three children: sons, Bruce W. Ferguson, of Great Falls, Va. and American University of Iraq, Sulaimani, and Scott S. Ferguson, of Santa Fe, N.M., and daughter, Sherry Ferguson Zoellick, of McLean, Va.; and four grandchildren.