Patricia D. Redis

Patricia Diane Elaine (Vogel) Redis died from end stage kidney disease on January 14, 2026, in Danvers, Massachusetts. Pat was a New Yorker: born in Manhattan, raised in Queens, and living the majority of her life in Yorktown Heights.

Pat was preceded in death by her parents, Charles and Jeanette (Krokowski) Vogel, and her husband of 54 years, Robert Redis. Pat is survived by their children, son Liam Casey and his wife Ania of Beverly, Massachusetts; daughters Courtenay of Oakland, California, and Jessica of Gloucester, Massachusetts. Pat also leaves behind three grandchildren—Luke, Timothy, and Sophia—as well as cousins Rita Roger, Gloria Tremolini, Paul Nuccio and Sandy Palmer.

Because of her mother’s tuberculosis, Pat spent the majority of her first six years living with her Polish grandmother, aunts, uncle and cousins in a two-family house in Jamaica, Queens. She eventually moved in with her parents in Valley Stream. Playing with her cousins as a little girl, and seeing Broadway shows and musicals with her mother as a teen were some of Pat’s fondest memories.

She often repeated stories of childhood, including of Babcia using a coal stove to cook pierogies and pork’s knuckles, of the horse-drawn wagons delivering blocks of ice, and the traveling amusement rides mounted on trucks, like the flat carousels and “whip” rides. Pat and her dad spent Sunday afternoons with their German family in Ridgewood, Queens eating sauerbraten and venison. She also reminisced about long summer weekends in upstate New York where she remembered target shooting with a .22 rifle and playing in the hay lofts with her cousins.

Her father was a brilliant, self-trained mechanical engineer who earned patents for his tape recording innovations. Very sadly for Pat, when she was in high school he moved to what became Silicon Valley. While they didn’t see each other often after his move to California, she had mostly wonderful memories of a road trip they took through Colorado and the West.

An excellent student, she graduated as high school valedictorian. Pat was admitted to both Stanford and Cornell Universities, and was one of the few women at that time who was admitted to the prestigious Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.

Like her dad, she was fascinated with numbers, patterns, designs and science. Changing majors during her first year, she transferred from Cooper Union to Queens College

CUNY, where she earned a degree in Experimental Psychology and graduated as class salutatorian. Always facile with words, she won awards for her writing and poetry (as did her father), and studied French, Russian and ancient Greek. Among her proudest academic achievements was being inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society.

While a senior in college, she met her future husband on a date arranged by his brother and her cousin, and less than three months later they were engaged. She was offered a scholarship to attend Yale Law School but turned this down to work while Bob completed his law degree at NYU.

Pat tested into the highest level position available at the Social Security Administration office, and once Bob was working as an attorney they decided to move to the suburbs. Pat was proud to have helped redesign the blueprint of the home they built.

As an only child longing for a sibling, she called her cat Sammy her “little brother,” taking him on walks around the neighborhood in Queens. In their Yorktown home, there were always cats and dogs, usually rescues. They raised Bouvier de Flandres, an Akita-German Shepherd mix, a Golden Retriever, and sometimes there were hamsters, cockatiels and parakeets adding to the chaos. After the kids moved out, Pat and Bob adopted what he’d refer to as his girls: labrador retrievers Yonah and Felicia from Guiding Eyes for the Blind, and later two labradoodle sisters, Maggie and Cassie. They built a fence to enclose their large yard so their girls could run free, which became essential as Pat and Bob aged. They loved sitting outside on their back patio with the dogs at their feet or in their laps. They read, watched the birds at Bob’s many feeders, and listened to the sound of their fountain or Pat’s many wind chimes. Pat loved flowers, gardened, and always looked forward to the large planters and balloons her family would give her on Mother’s Day and birthdays.

Family vacations in Gloucester, MA were the highlight of each summer. They stayed at the Atlantis Motor Inn along the rugged Atlantic Coast, climbing the boulders, swimming in the pool, reading, visiting the shops along the main streets of Gloucester and Rockport, eating grilled English muffins at breakfast and take-out dinners on the balcony as the sun set. Her memories of meeting local artists brought Pat joy, and every wall at home was covered in art. This included the dining room where she and Bob spent many hours with the mixed soundtrack of his jazz music, her Steely Dan, as well as lively debates on repeat.

Pat also enjoyed cooking, cooking gadgets and cookbooks – she owned more than 300 at one time. Not only did she enjoy it, she was excellent at it, frequently bringing high praise from those who participated in the dinners she prepared or when leftovers were brought to friends and coworkers. She and Bob were voracious readers, and read multiple books from the library every week, often taking turns reading the same mysteries before returning them. Pat would say that as a little girl her “gateway drug” to a lifelong love of mysteries was her Nancy Drew collection, then Agatha Christie and Ellory Queen. As a teenager she also explored a variety of religious and philosophical writers from Kahil Gibran and the Bhagavad Gita to Ayn Rand. She and Bob owned thousands of books, with rooms full of history, philosophy, classics, humor, memoir, biography, fiction, poetry, baseball, trains, and stacks of New Yorker magazines. In the evening they liked to watch Masterpiece Theatre, the PBS News Hour, football (Giants) and baseball (rooting for the Mets after their Dodgers deserted to L.A.).

They had a tradition of hanging handmade signs to celebrate birthdays and anniversaries. At her bedside in hospice she hung the sign that Bob made for her birthday two years prior. She was so allergic to giving away or throwing anything out that upon her request, her kids schlepped over paintings, books, jewelry, her Ramen soups, Butterfingers and a large t-shirt collection. Reminiscent of her home, her hospice room was more cluttered but livelier than any other room there. She drifted into her final week with her Christmas decorations twinkling, her paintings in eyesight, and her youngest daughter nearby.

For decades every time someone left the house Pat would say, “get home safely,” and at bedtime, “have a good night’s sleep.” We hope that her leaving was as peaceful as she looked.

The family would like to thank the many neighbors in Yorktown who helped our mom after our father died. They looked after her dog and cat, managed plumbing emergencies, shoveled snow, brought over food, and even helped sell a car. We also thank the staff of Brightview Senior Living for looking out for her when she lived in Massachusetts, and the caregivers at Kaplan Family Hospice House who accompanied our mom and our family in her last two months. We are immensely grateful to those who have lovingly cared for our parent’s beloved dog Cassie, including Denise and especially now Stephanie, who adopted Ms. Cassita over two years ago and continues to provide her a wonderful home with many furry friends.

If you are inclined, we invite you to contribute to one of the charities Pat donated to monthly: Planned Parenthood, St. Judes Children’s Hospital or the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).