Patricia Ryaby Backer

Birth date: Apr 24, 1956 Death date: Sep 24, 2021

Patricia Ryaby Backer, age 65, died peacefully on September 24, 2021 at home in Fremont, California. Patricia was born in New Jersey on April 24, 1956 to Jack and Louise Ryaby. Patricia is survived by her husband of 30 years, Vic Read Obituary

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Kelly Masegian

208w ago

Kelly Masegian - SJSU Career Center - Pat is a legend at SJSU. I have been at SJSU for only 4 years, but I knew her name long before I had the opportunity to meet her or work directly with her. I support the College of Engineering, and both she and I were surprised that we hadn't officially met when we ran across each other at a College of Engineering function. I had the pleasure of working with Pat on the Curriculum and Research Committee, and I very much enjoyed hearing others' stories of Pat at the SJSU Memorial as my 'slice of the Pat pie' was very narrow. She will be dearly missed by the SJSU community.

Troop 32113

209w ago

Sent a Sweetest Sunrise Bouquet to the Backer family.

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Laura Green

210w ago

in honor of Patricia.

For those of you who don't know me, Pat and I worked at SJSU together and, through that work, became each others' family in California. We called our kids "pseudo-siblings," went on many family trips together to Disneyland, and spent holidays together. My life, both personal and professional, will never be the same. I have a hard time believing she's gone and think of things every day that I want to either tell her about or ask her about. My daughter keeps mentioning her "Aunt Pat" being gone and I know she doesn't fully understand what that means in this case.

Pat, I will miss you every day for the rest of my life and will do my best to honor your legacy at SJSU and take care of our family. 💜

One of the ways I want to honor Pat is to ask that her friends and family support Taylor, her daughter, in her pursuit of her Bachelor's Degree at Scripps College. Pat was so proud of Taylor and wanted to do everything she could to send Taylor to her dream college, no matter the cost. Instead of sending flowers, please consider donating to a scholarship fund we set up for Taylor. Information is available here: https://gofund.me/93bfd69a

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Anonymous

210w ago

Sent a sympathy card to the Backer family.

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Annette Nellen

210w ago

Pat will very much be missed. I worked with Pat for many years at SJSU. She gave so much of her time and immense talents to made SJSU an outstanding university and to help all students succeed in their endeavors and reach goals they might not have thought of when they started at SJSU. Pat always understood the key goals for SJSU were related to student success. She was super smart and very passionate about providing support to help students and faculty be successful and to feel a great sense of accomplishment. She could quickly identify how anything could be improved and helped to make it so. When asked to help, she said yes. I will miss her a lot.

Annette Nellen, long-time faculty colleague of Pat's

Sheba Wilson--Former Student Assistant

210w ago

Sent a Beautiful in Blue to the Backer family.

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Jessica L.

210w ago

in honor of Patricia.

Pat will be sorely missed by her SJSU family. She did so much for the faculty, staff, and students. May she rest in peace...

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Felicia Donald

211w ago

My heart is broken over the loss of one of my sister's. Patricia and I met at Catholic University in 1973, she as an engineering student and me as a Chemistry student. We would study long hours together with other engineering students and often on weekends head to the museums and walk and talk. We partied, drank beer, and just had an enjoyable time. I know Pat's whole family and had visited the Jersey shore and sipped on vodka gimlets and had fun at the boardwalk. Through the years I always remained friends with Pat, and she came back to the DC area to teach at Thomas Jefferson Science and Techy H.S. Those years she would come over and help me with my 2 daughters and we would just talk and enjoy dealing with toddlers. Pat left after she was offered a job at San Jose University. I continued to talk with her and visited San Francisco often where we would meet for dinner. I met her husband, Victor whom she met on the BART. They had a wonderful, caring relationship. Pat confided in my that she was trying to adopt a baby. Luckily for her a teen-ager had come to my office and wanted to adopt the baby out and the adoptive mother decided on Pat and Victor. I remember that time when Taylor stayed at my house that first month of birth. It was Pat, Victor, Taylor, and ME. That baby brought a joy and happiness to Pat and Victor. She filled their hearts with joy. Pat was ever the teacher always teaching Taylor the ways of the world. "You are her aunt," Pat would say to me. Through the years I often saw Taylor grow into an intelligent and caring human and this all because of Victor and Pat. I will miss her dearly. I will miss her strong convictions and temperament but mostly I will miss her friendship. I will miss my Pat.

Victoria Sansome

212w ago

During my time working in the COE at SJSU, no one was more supportive of new faculty than Pat. She has always been inspiring, kind, generous with her time and valuable insight, and very encouraging. Pat has been invaluable to the COE in particular and SJSU overall. I will miss her greatly!

Sending my very best to her family and friends as everyone grapples with losing such a truly wonderful woman.

Victoria Sansome

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