Pat Holliday’s wish was to teach students to read “if it’s the last thing I do.”
Holliday, 66, who died Feb. 25 of the effects of breast cancer, worked at that until ill health forced her to retire.
She will be remembered at a gathering Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Washington Park Chapel, 1001 S. Pearl St.
“She was a good Irish person,” said her son David Parker of Castle Rock. She wanted (the service) to include “great stories and eclectic food,” especially potatoes, which she liked no matter how they were fixed.
In Holliday’s teaching, her aim wasn’t to demand perfection but “to get kids to their own potential so they would have a sense of accomplishment,” said son Adam Leicht ling of Miami Beach.
“She was a master of talking people into things,” said her husband, Arthur Parker.
A photographer, he was one of the professionals she talked into going to Gilpin Extended Day Center over the past 20 years for students to spend time with before and after school.
Her students ranged from at-risk kids to those from wealthy families.
The visiting professionals “got hooked on the kids,” said Arthur Parker.
Holliday also taught kindergarten at Gilpin and at Cole Arts and Sciences Academy. She retired at the end of the 2009 school year.
Holliday was given the Mayor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1997 and the Mile High Teachers’ Award in 2007 and 2009.
Holliday was on her way to California from the East Coast in 1972 when she came through Denver. Her Volkswagen van broke down here, and she decided to stay. She worked as a clerk in a bakery and wheeled patients around at a hospital before she finally got a job in Denver Public Schools.
Mary Patricia Holliday was born March 26, 1943, in Uniontown, Pa.
Her first marriage, to Ben Leicht ling, ended in divorce, and she married Arnold Parker on July 4, 1990.
She graduated from Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa., with a double major in elementary education and biology. She earned her master’s in early childhood education at the University of Colorado Denver while teaching.
In addition to her husband and sons, she is survived by another son, Dr. Christopher Parker of Austin, Texas; three daughters, Gillian Leicht ling of Portland, Ore., Sunday Parker of Castle Rock, and Jennifer Parker Arpin of Brighton; seven grandchildren; and her sister and brother, Christine Holliday and Jerry Holliday, both of Uniontown. Her daughter Rebecca Parker died last year.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
