Dr. Virginia Ann Patton Dr. Virginia Ann Patton, 79, died March 21, 2008 at the Episcopal Church Home in Louisville, Ky.
She was an educator and former principal of Wait Elementary School in Streetsboro.
She began her affiliation with Streetsboro schools as a Title I reading specialist in 1975, served the district in various capacities, and retired as Wait Elementary School principal in 1992. She was known as the "Hugging Principal," and teaching and working with students was one of the greatest joys in her life.
Dr. Patton was born Feb. 4, 1929 in Alliance to George and Rafe Morar, and was raised in Braceville.
She attended both Auburn College and Kent State University, earning Ph.D. at Kent State University in 1981.
In 1948, she married Robert Starr Patton of Cuyahoga Falls and spent the next 30 years as a military wife living in many different states and in Europe, teaching intermittently when the opportunity arose.
In 1974, she returned to Kent, when her husband, also a graduate of Kent State, was named the Professor of Military Science for the ROTC Department at Kent State University.
Upon retirement, she moved to Melbourne, Fla. where she worked part time for Central Florida University, overseeing their student teacher program and also fulfilled a lifelong dream to travel and see the world.
She was preceded in death by her parents George and Rafe Morar, her husband Col. Robert Starr Patton and by her brother George Morar Jr.
She is survived by a son, Robert S. Patton of Lake Mary, Fla., a daughter Linda Patton Hay of Louisville, KY, 5 grandchildren, 1 great-granddaughter and two brothers, Dan Morar of Newton Falls, and Virgil Morar of Orlando, Fla.
A memorial service and burial is planned at Arlington National Cemetery. Memorial donations may be made to the Military Officers Association of America College Scholarship Fund at PO Box 34889, Alexandria, Va. 22334 or at www.moaa.org, or to the Alzheimer's Association.