Patricia Waris Rashid (Teacher at Dreux Elementary School)

The world lost a most cherished matriarch with the death of Patricia Ann Waris Rashid on Apr 11, 2025.

Pat (as she was known to friends) / Trish (as she was known to family) / Sittu (as she was known to her three favorite people on Earth) was the first child of her parents’ five (Tom, Mike, Vicki, Sara), and the first grandchild of 32 cousins. Her grandchildren (Jade Rashid, 20; Alya Brice, 11 and Tommy Brice, 9) especially loved the stories of her joyful and often mischievous childhood in St. Joseph, Missouri, surrounded by siblings and cousins who doubled as her beloved playmates.

After graduating from Duchesne College with a degree in English and Philosophy, she worked as a teacher for the children of U.S. Air Force members stationed around the world. She left St. Joe for seven years of life on military bases in Bermuda, then Germany and finally France (read what one of her students wrote about those days here: https://dreuxairbasefrancememories.org/files/Stories_html_nf/watson_stories/teacher/Sherry_Miss_Waris.html ). After the school year in France ended, she spent a summer on her own living in Paris, a city she never fell out of love with. She also took the opportunity to travel everywhere possible when she was abroad, including a most memorable Christmas in Bethlehem.

She returned to the U.S. and received her Master’s degree in English and Education at the University of Missouri at Columbia. It was her graduate school advisor who told her about an available job as an editor at textbook publisher Scott, Foresman and Co. This would require yet another most fateful move: to Chicago.

In 1965, she begrudgingly agreed to accompany best friend Jane Kennedy to a charity ball being hosted at the Ambassador West hotel. It was here that Philip Rashid, Sr., approached and asked if she, too, was Lebanese (she was). They wed six months later and lived their 53 married years in the Gold Coast neighborhood of Chicago, where they raised their children, PJ (Sheila) and Sara (Coleman), played with their grandchildren, hosted their friends, and bonded with their neighbors. They also routinely traveled the country visiting family, as well as enjoying trips to Canada, Beirut, England, and, of course, Paris.

Pat’s faith was central to her life philosophy. Her belief that love was most powerful, that our bodies are mere vessels for our unique and precious souls, that prayer can connect us to both God and each other, and that while we are on this Earth we should do unto others as we would have them do to us informed every decision she made, every relationship she nurtured. She genuinely cared about you, no matter who you were - family, friend, neighbor, stranger.

She played bridge twice a week (if you don’t count online games in between) and gave it at least partial credit for her absolute absence of cognitive decline even as she neared her 91st birthday. Her intelligence and lightning-fast wit never, ever dimmed. She was sharp as a white-hot tack.

She lived independently in every way: yes, literally, but also in her thinking. She was progressive. She was religious. She was always reading and learning and debating and discussing, and somehow, also, always listening. She was opinionated without being judgmental, educated without being superior. She was warm. She was professional. She was silly. She was frequently (and accurately) referred to as “classy”, “elegant”, “graceful”, and “as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside”.

To say “she will be missed” is both too small and too big of a sentiment to describe her Earthly absence. We long to hear her voice and to hug her. But her wisdom, wit and warmth were so deep and profound and bountiful we will always feel them and carry them with us. So for that, and for so much, we are grateful.

The family will receive friends at Theis-Gorski Funeral Home, 3517 N. Pulaski Road on Friday, May 16th from 5:00 PM until 9:00 PM. Funeral Mass to be held on Saturday, May 17th at 11:00 AM at St. Joseph Catholic Church, 1107 N. Orleans, Chicago, IL 60610

In lieu of flowers, Mrs. Rashid requested donations to be made to Doctors Without Borders.