OBITUARY: Patricia Hicks
Patricia Goddard Hicks, born April 11, 1945, passed away on March 13, 2023. Patricia was born in St. Petersburg and lived there until moving to Tampa in 1958. She attended and graduated from H.B. Plant High School. She then attended Principia College for two years and graduated from Florida State University in 1966.
She then married her high school sweetheart, Dustin Chapman, in 1969. They were the proud parents of Dustin Goddard Chapman and Darrin David Chapman.
Patricia worked in retail sales for several years until moving back to Clearwater and attending the University of South Florida, receiving her master’s degree in education. Pat then taught at Saint Petersburg Junior College and worked in the counselling department, helping students to find jobs and utilizing their training and education until 1988.
Pat was active in sailing and racing sunfish sail boats in Tampa Bay. She enjoyed spending her time with her family at Egmont Key where her dad had a cabin and worked as a Tampa Bay Pilot. She was a vociferous shell collector. She and her boys also spent some time on Big Pine Key with her sister Laura Causey and her family.
In 1987 she got reacquainted with a young man she met in the Sunday school of the Christian Science church of Tampa in the 1960s. Pat and her parents were long time members of the Christian Science Church. In 1988 she and Randy were married in San Diego Calif. and lived in Ventura, Calif. for three years. In 1991 they moved to Alaska, where Randy had worked previously. Pat was not a real fan of cold weather, but quickly got involved in Anchorage Church, playing tennis at the Racket Club and volunteering at the Anchorage Museum of History. She quickly met people who she became good, longterm friends in Anchorage.
The family took many adventure vacations including rafting the Grand Canyon, rafting the upper and lower Green River and lots of camping in Alaska. In later years they started with a small inflatable, and gradually went to larger boats. They enjoyed the waters Kachemak Bay, Prince William Sound, Resurrection Bay, and Southeast Alaska coastline.
Pat also sailed in the Caribbean, Gulf of Mexico, Sea of Cortez and other remote locations. She was always up for an adventure, and was a wonderful sailing partner.
In 2014 after Randy retired, they started wintering in Boca Grande and returning home to Alaska in the summer. Pat very much enjoyed the warm winters, playing tennis outdoors and beachcombing on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico.
An added bonus was that were her sons, granddaughter and families lived on the West Coast of Florida. That made it perfect.
Pat was predeceased by her mother and father, Faye Felton Goddard and Captain David Goddard. She is survived by her husband W. Randolph Hicks (Randy); her sons and daughters-in-law Dustin Goddard Chapman and Anne Chapman, Darrin David Chapman and partner Kim Wilson; granddaughter Skyler Chapman; sisters and brothers-in law-Laura and Billy Causey of Altoona and Catherine and Jim Bell of Carmel Calif. She has many loving nieces, nephews, and cousins in Florida and California.
A small family Celebration of life will be held in the Tampa Bay area soon. The family would like to thank the staff of Arden Court Memory Care of Largo and Hospice Pinellas County (Empath) for the loving care provided Patricia Hicks.
