Patricia Foust Hoppe, resident of Kirkland Village, Bethlehem, passed away peacefully on January 1, 2023. Pat was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on August 27, 1941, to Alan S. and Elizabeth (Aigler) Foust. She was the oldest of four. Pat's lifelong connection to Bethlehem began in 1952, when her family moved so that her father could join the faculty of Lehigh University, where he co-founded the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. Pat attended Nitschmann Junior High School and Liberty High School before graduating from the MacDuffie School in Springfield, Massachusetts. Back in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan, she was a member of Delta Gamma, and she graduated in 1963 with a BA in History after a school guidance counselor convinced her that her favorite subject, chemistry, was not an appropriate subject for women to study. While working a summer job in Bethlehem in 1962, she met William "Bill" Hoppe, an employee of Bethlehem Steel. Something clicked, and after she returned for her last year of college, he visited Ann Arbor, where they attended a memorable Maize and Blue football game. Neither Pat nor Bill remembered the score or even the other team, but thanks to their seats directly behind the Michigan band (who turned and faced the stands every time they stood up to play), they never, ever forgot her school's fight song, "Hail to the Victors." They were married one year later in 1963.

"God Bless Our Pad": After Pat returned to Bethlehem and made her home with Bill, she stitched these words into the lives of all her loved ones. She gave birth to their daughter Margat in 1964 and son Bruce in 1967. Like a natural-born chemist, Pat attended to the reactions of her husband and children to discover and refine many key catalysts and other ingredients essential to family well-being. She practiced and perfected the art of sewing until she was making tailored blazers for Bill and custom curtains for Bruce. She brought similar passion to her cooking, which she did not learn "the easy way" as a girl, but "the hard way" as an adult, through diligent, loving practice, ever inspired by the hungry mouths and finicky tastes of her family. Along the way, several of Pat's recipes acquired legendary status, perhaps none more so than her homemade applesauce. Approaching Thanksgiving 2022, just a few months before her death, Pat didn't worry much about how people would get their turkey and trimmings, which would work out somehow, but she spent months sourcing the fruit the family would need to help her make applesauce, because the ideal variety, which she discovered in the 1980s, was seemingly no longer available. When she finally found an orchard with a surviving stand of the proper trees, she ordered a half-bushel, so that Margat and Bruce could join her for a day at the stove making jars full of love.

Pat spent almost her entire life rooted in Bethlehem, but many of her loved ones did not, and she enjoyed traveling with husband Bill to be close to family. Their early car vacations featured stops in Michigan, where Pat was a little girl, and they added Kansas and Wisconsin to their regular itinerary when Pat's little sister and youngest brother both left Pennsylvania to settle in the midwest. Eventually Pat also made many trips to Europe, some of them following her brother's relocation to Norway, but most of them to keep up with grown daughter Margat, who moved with her husband to Switzerland, where they raised all five of Pat's grandchildren.

Pat was devoted to her community. During the early years of her marriage, she was active in the AAUW Bethlehem Branch, where she served as president of the Children's Theater. She also belonged to the Junior League of the Lehigh Valley, which she led as president in 1980-1981. After her children left home for college, Pat joined the research department of the Lehigh University Office of Development, and she worked there for twenty-five years, from 1986 until her retirement in 2011. A long-time member of First Presbyterian Church of Bethlehem, she served as a deacon and Stephen Minister, caring for people in need. More recently she attended Grace Church Bethlehem for as long as her declining mobility allowed.

Pat was predeceased by twin brother Alan, sister Carolyn, and brother C. William. Surviving in addition to her beloved husband are son Bruce of Arlington, Massachusetts, daughter Margat Werner of Tagertschi, Switzerland, and grandchildren Markus, Peter, Jacob, Hanna, and Benjamin.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday, January 14, 2023, in the Kirkland Village Auditorium, One Kirkland Village Circle, Bethlehem.