Patricia A. Myshrall Staff died on November 9, 2025, in Brunswick, Maine.
Library Assistant 1968-2016; Emerita 2016
Announcement from President Zaki:
It is with sadness that I report to the campus community that Library Assistant Emerita Patricia A. Myshrall passed away at the age of 87 on November 9. Pat had worked at the Bowdoin Library for forty-eight years, from 1968 until her retirement in 2016.
Pat was born in Waterville, Maine, to Otto and Evelyn Myshrall. After her mother died in childbirth, Pat and her brother were cared for by aunts in Bath, because her father’s work required frequent travel. After her father remarried, the family moved to Brunswick, where a sister and three more brothers joined Pat’s family. Pat attended public and parochial schools in Brunswick, but was forced to leave high school to take care of her siblings when her father became ill and her stepmother had to work outside the home.
Before her seventeenth birthday, Pat began working in a sardine factory in Yarmouth in 1954, at a low-paying job that was hard, dirty, and dangerous. She subsequently worked as a stitcher at Standard Romper/Healthtex and assembled art brushes for Grumbacher in Brunswick. In 1968, her fortunes changed when she was engaged as an au pair to accompany Professor Robert Beckwith’s family to Europe during his sabbatical leave. Upon her return, Pat was encouraged by Professor Beckwith to apply for a position at the College; she applied for a position and was hired immediately to work in the library, repairing books.
Pat came to acquire many skills at Hawthorne-Longfellow Library, as it evolved from having a physical card catalogue to becoming an information hub in the digital age. Among her most valued traits was her ability to connect with students, faculty, staff, and visitors to the campus. She was beloved by her colleagues in the library, and her presentation of “The Book” (a compilation of the year’s most amusing stories about the library and its patrons) was a much-anticipated highlight of the annual library holiday party. She was especially effective and charming in securing overdue library books from patrons. Former students returning to the campus would make a point of seeking her out to say “hello.”
In 1997, Pat received a Bowdoin College Employee Excellence Award. Writing in support of her nomination, her supervisor called her “the soul of the library,” and emphasized Pat’s willingness to step in and do whatever work needed to be done. She was a member of the Support Staff Advocacy Committee in 2001. In 2007, Pat was selected as the Outstanding Older Worker of Maine. This resulted in a trip to Washington, DC, and an opportunity to meet with honorees from other states and with Maine’s congressional delegation. Upon her retirement in 2016, Pat was named Library Assistant Emerita by Bowdoin’s Trustees.
Patricia was predeceased by her parents and by her brother Carol. She is survived by her sister, Brenda (Lenny), her brothers Michael, Sr. (Terry), Joseph, and Peter, and by several nieces and nephews and their children. She will be missed a great deal by all those whose lives she touched over the years.