Pat Baars (1935-2022) is the woman who brought Barry and Bill Baars into the world. You may remember Bill — with the laughing face — as the previous director of Lake Oswego Public Library until he retired in 2018 (where is he now?). She may not be not as well-known around town as Bill, but in the field of education Pat Baars stood out.
Pat taught history at Marshall High School for almost 30 years. One of her students, Mark Dustan — class of 69 — wrote this tribute:
“The year was 1965 I was a freshman at Marshall High. We were on an all-new flexible scheduling adopted from Stanford University. I went to my social studies class. The teacher was Pat Baars. She gave us our first assignment. You had a choice of projects. The paper said ‘who originally owned the land on which Marshall High was built?’
“I told her that was easy, ‘the Indians.’ She said, ‘Show me the proof.’ I asked, ‘Where should I look for that?’ She said, “If I were you I’d check with the library, they seem to have a lot of information.’
“That is all the direction she gave me. I trundled down to the library and had a lot of ideas from the librarian. She suggested several county and city office as well as several title companies. When I told them what I was looking for, they were very helpful. I ended up in the old musty basement of a title company digging through old Multnomah County files in log books. I was able to determine it was half owned by Clinton Kelly and Oliver P. Lent based on federal land grants. Thus began my lifelong quest of research.
“Our ways parted for quite a few years. It wasn’t until I ran into her at a genealogy conference. She was quite involved with Genealogy Forum of Oregon. I asked her what she was up to and she said into teaching genealogy research. I told her I was just beginning to research my family tree. She showed her research binder. I flipped through the pages and stopped at Duston-Dustin Family Association, Haverhill Mass. I asked, ‘What is that?’ She said ‘I am a Dustan, didn’t I tell you that?’ This began my quest as the family genealogist. I invited her to the all-Marshall class reunions and she attended several.”
After retiring — did she ever really retire? — from Marshall, Pat taught at Portland State University. “She was a master teacher, and I was always happy to hire her as an adjunct at PSU’s College of Education to teach future social studies teachers,” stated Ulrich Hardt. Connie Lenzen and April Ober met Pat through their love of genealogy. “She was a very active involved member of the Genealogical Forum of Oregon,” remembers April. “She wrote one of the books in our library.” Connie added, “She was a genealogy buddy and will be missed.”
The book April refers to, titled “Near Neighbors: Cross-cultural Friendships in Dickey Prairie and South Molalla,” discusses the relationship between the John Kilgore Dickey family and the Mollala (Native Americans.) Connie Lenzen commented that “Pat’s interest in the Molalla of Dickey Prairie led to a life-long friendship with Kathryn Harrison of Grand Ronde. She drove Kathryn to various museums to repatriate Indian artifacts — including Molalla Kate’s dress.” Clackamas County Education Service District published the book in 1982.
Another of Pat’s students, Patrice Ball, wrote “Ms. Baars was my freshman humanities teacher at Marshall in the ‘70s. I will never forget her kind, calm, open and caring ways. I love that her photo here includes the Native jewelry, because that’s exactly how I remember her! She co-taught with Betty Lindsay. Together they made a huge impact in my life, and I’m sure in the lives of so many former students. “
Born Patricia Ruth Hargreaves in 1935, she was a Lake Oswego lifer: grew up in Lake Oswego on Kelok Road, raised her family here and resided here her adult life. Pat’s husband Glenn and her sons were the loves of her life along with canoeing, swimming and Bach.
Wish I’d known you, Pat Baars. Too bad you never taught at Lake Oswego High School when I was there.
If you enjoy reading this column, drop me a line historyconnectionlo@gmail.com or visit my website — currently being updated.
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