Graveside services for Patricia (Pat) A. Herminghouse, 84, Pittsford Town, New York, will be held at 2:00 p.m., Friday, November 8, 2024, at Barnett Cemetery, under the direction of Robertson-Drago Funeral Home.
Patricia (Pat) A. Herminghouse, daughter of the late James and Helen Burke, was born in Chicago Illinois on March 13th, 1940. She entered into eternal rest on October 29th, 2024 at the age of eighty-four years. Pat grew up in the suburbs of Chicago IL, and went on to attend Knox College in Galesburg, IL, where she graduated in 1962 with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics as well as modern languages. During her time at Knox, she also spent time abroad studying mathematics and German at the University of Freiberg. Following her graduation from Knox College, she traveled to the University of Graz, Austria as a Fulbright Scholar to continue her German studies between 1962 and 1963. In 1963, she returned to the United States to attend Washington University in St. Louis where she went on to earn a Master of Arts and subsequently a PhD in German Studies in 1968. After earning her Doctorate, she embarked on a long and distinguished teaching career starting as an Instructor at Fontbonne College, then as an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, an Associate Professor at Washington University, and finally a full Professor at the University of Rochester where she was the Chair of the Department of Foreign Languages, Literature, and Linguistics, ultimately retiring with the title of Karl F. and Bertha A. Fuchs Professor Emerita of German Studies. Outside of her teaching work, she was an accomplished academic author and editor of numerous scholarly works focused on German literature, identity, German immigrants in America, and feminist writers. She had a central role in founding Women in German, promoting feminist scholarship of German literature and culture internationally, and served as a President of the German Studies Association. She received the Susan B. Anthony Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of her personal and professional accomplishments, commitment to equity, and standing as a role model for other women. Pat met her husband Don in Seville, Spain on New Year’s Eve in 1960 while she was studying abroad and he was serving in the US Navy. They wed in 1964, spending nearly fifty-nine loving years of marriage together. Pat and Don both loved to travel the world, visiting over forty countries and all seven continents, as well as exploring widely throughout the United States. With all of her experiences of the variety that the world had to offer, Pat enjoyed a wide variety of international cuisines and became an accomplished cook herself. She and Don also used their travels together to explore their shared interest in researching and documenting their families’ genealogy. Pat was a passionate devotee of the arts, volunteering as a docent at Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery and attending every symphony, opera, theater performance, and lecture that she could manage to find time for. She was a voracious reader and constantly engaged with a wide variety of news, cultural, and other publications.
Pat is survived by her son, Justin Herminghouse, of Garrison, NY, her daughter, Shauna Herminghouse of Wellington, NZ, her sisters Kathleen Edwards, of Springfield, IL, and Mary Sue Burke of Downers Grove, IL, and her brother James Burke of Bellevue, IA.
She is preceded in death by her parents and her husband, Donald Herminghouse.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Pat’s memory to Rochester’s Memorial Art Gallery, 500 University Avenue, Rochester, NY 14607 or WXXI Public Broadcasting Council, https://www.wxxi.org/support/; two organizations whose contributions in the community Pat cared deeply about.
