Roll Call Tribute

Patrick Orman "Pat" Reardon 

August 13, 1939 - March 23, 2024 

Beloved husband, father, and grandfather, Patrick “Pat” Orman Reardon passed away peacefully at his home on March 23, 2024, at the age of 84. He is survived by his wife of 61 years Carol Jean Cox Reardon; daughters Amy Reardon and Wendy Reardon; grandson Jeremy Reardon and fiancée Amber Smith; granddaughter Ashley Jones and husband Eric Jones; sister-in-law Rev. Jean Brown Reardon; Beth Sparks Reardon and her and Tommy’s children Sean Reardon and wife Terri Chappell Reardon, their children Aaron and Connar; and Helen Reardon McCarthy and spouse Anne and their children Jude and Ziggy.
Pat was preceded in death by his parents Frantz Reardon and Dorothy Zesch Reardon; brother Tommy Reardon; nephew Will Reardon and wife Melissa Ziehmke Reardon.

Pat was born in Mason, Texas on August 13, 1939. On March 23, 2024, the day of his passing, all you had to do was look around and you knew Pat’s presence was still there and always would be. In his own oft-spoken words, “the right amount of rain fell at just the right time”, giving us a beautiful spring day of lush green grass and an artist’s array of wildflowers to remember him by. We all know the artist. He gave His only Son in order that we may live. And it was this Son, Christ Jesus, and His example of love and service, that would guide Pat’s eight decades.

Pat’s Texas Hill Country childhood consisted of bare feet chasing horned toads up and down pink granite gravel roads and river beds; playing “cowboys and Indians” in real Comanche territory; hunting wild game and arrowheads; fishing for anything that would bite; pulling off pranks with the neighborhood gang that included his barely-a-year-older-than-him brother, Tommy; and earning Boy Scout badges all the way up the ranks to the tune of Eagle Scout. So many good ol’ adventures with so many good ol’ folks. For a brief, infamous moment, Pat was known as “the little boy who fell in a well”. He was only three. It happened on a Friday the 13th. Every single Friday the 13th after, his mother Dorothy would check in on him, wherever she was, wherever he was, even into his adulthood and up until the day she passed.

Pat graduated Mason High with the class of 1957. He then pursued not one; but, three degrees from Texas A&M University: a BS in Agriculture with a teaching certification, a MS in Range Management, and a Ph.D. in Range Science. Folded in between all the studies, teaching and research, Pat would meet and marry Carol Jean Cox of San Marcos in 1963 and welcome two daughters, Amy Elizabeth in 1966 and Wendy Lee in 1970.

Pat’s entire life was firmly grounded in stewardship. Whether it was as a member, a director or a presiding officer, he was always eager to lend his time and/or expertise in the proper and ethical stewardship of the land, as well as developing and managing improvements to wildlife and livestock habitat. This was also evidenced by his many research projects and publications. (If we were to include the list, it would add at least 3.5 pages!)

Stewardship was also important in Pat’s faith journey. In addition to the baritone voice he shared with every congregation’s choir he was ever a member of, he also taught Sunday school, sponsored youth group events, served on committees and mission trips all over the world, and volunteered hundreds of hours – another very long list. This was certainly not for praise or accolades, nor only when others were looking. He practiced his faith when in private too. He began every single day with prayer and the daily devotional from The Upper Room.

The family asks that, in lieu of flowers or other gifts, donations be made to Steady Steps Children’s Ministry of Mason, Mason County Nutrition Program or First United Methodist Church, Mason.