Pat Alderson
Pat Alderson’s book closes.
Santa Paula lost a hidden treasure on December 13. Patricia Alderson, longtime advocate of libraries and literacy, passed away at home after a brief illness. She was 75.
Born April 12, 1936, to Jack and Dora Gilbertson, Patricia - known to all as Pat or Patty - grew up on Say Road and attended McKevett Elementary School. She had fond memories of the small library that principal Thelma Bedell created. “I was already one of those kids that always seemed to have a book.... Books were always an important part of my life and I love them,” she recalled years later.
At Isbell Junior High, she started the eighth-grade newspaper “Isbell Sweeper,” and wrote and produced a play, “Willie’s Worms Incorporated.” She graduated from Santa Paula High School in 1953, participating in student council, drama class, and music appreciation, and was yearbook editor.
Pat majored in English at UCLA, graduating in 1957. There she met James Alderson, whom she married after graduation. Following a stint in Barstow for Jim’s military service, they moved to Santa Monica, where she was surprised (and a little distressed) to give birth to twins Craig and Michael. She moved to San Diego in 1960, where she had two more children, John (Jack) and Susannah.
In San Diego, she became involved in the PTA and helped with library book sales for her children’s school. After moving back to Santa Paula in 1970, Pat answered an appeal to parents from the principal of Blanchard School, which her children attended, to start a school library.
“When I came back with my own children I was appalled that our schools didn’t have libraries. I’ve been a nag and a pest ever since about libraries. They’re crucial,” she said. Soon, teachers at other schools contacted her, and she found herself organizing libraries at all of Santa Paula’s elementary schools.
She used creativity and gentle negotiating skills at a time when the schools had no libraries or library budgets, and some saw no need for them. Pat started the library collections with other parents by doing book drives. She went door-to-door with a little red wagon, asking for donations of children’s books.
At Blanchard, she attracted student volunteers by calling them SLOBS - Student Librarians of Blanchard School - complete with ribbons and badges, and giving out “Bartholomew Bookworm” awards. She trained parent volunteers, cajoled funding out of reluctant administrators, assembled bookcases, even routinely carried a hammer and WD-40 in her purse for library maintenance.
Pat also invented the character of Super Book, which she turned into the logo for the district libraries. She was always on the lookout for children’s books, and her car was perpetually full of books under review or on their way to a new library.
Pat managed the libraries as a volunteer until 1976, when the school district hired her. She headed the elementary school libraries and eventually also became librarian at Isbell. She retired in 1999.
The thriving libraries in Santa Paula’s elementary schools are her creation and legacy.
“The most important thing is that kids read!” was her familiar refrain. She tried to make libraries welcoming and fun oases where children could discover the joys of a good book. “The library used to be a place that was hush-hush, tiptoe around and don’t touch the books,” she said in 1989. “When I was a young student, I worked as a page in the community library; when I was shelving books, I could read them. It was wonderful!”
She delighted in reading to children, especially in story hours. She started a Read Aloud program for the kids, and began a tradition in her church of reading a children’s book during the weekly service.
In 1980, she became a member of the Blanchard Community Library board of directors. She served on the board until a restructuring of the library in 2001 made her ineligible to continue, but she quickly became active in the Friends of the Blanchard Library and became its president. There, she organized book sales, reading programs, and worked to safeguard library funding. In 2010, she organized the library’s 100th anniversary celebration.
Pat’s love of writing and literature, and of children, led her to start the Young Writers Contest in 1980 to encourage young aspiring writers. Her patient efforts sustained that annual contest for 31 years. In 2011 it drew 850 entries, producing over 80 winners in grades 1 through 8.
Pat also loved gardening, classical music, and history. She was forever fixing up her great-grandfather’s historic Victorian house, where she moved in 1979, and enjoyed giving tours to school groups. She provided historical material on the house and Sharp family to the Ventura Historical Society, and was a founding donor to the Santa Paula Art Museum.
Always modest, Pat approached everything with humor and a wry skepticism. She was grand marshal of the 1989 Christmas Parade and in 2002 received a “Woman of History” award, but she always found a way to direct attention to the children, the books, the libraries, and the staff who kept them going; never to herself. She was accepting of all people -- especially those without society’s approved credentials -- and she simply made people feel good. She will be deeply missed by all who knew her.
Pat is survived not just by her husband James, sister Jean, children Susannah and Craig, grandson Eian, nephew Jonathan, and their respective families. She is survived by the thousands of students whose lives she touched and changed.
The Universalist Unitarian Church, 740 E. Main St., Santa Paula, will host a memorial service for Pat Alderson on Sunday, January 22 at 2 p.m. Contributions in her memory may be made to the Young Writers Contest, c/o Brenda DeJamaer, 11840 Telegraph Rd., Santa Paula, CA 93060.
