Patricia Ann Tripeny

A Memorial Mass will be held on Wednesday, August 9, 2023 at 11:00 a.m. at St. Anthony’s Church for Casper Native, Pat Tripeny, who died August 3, 2023, in Casper.

Patricia Ann Kelliher was born May 1, 1933, in Casper, Wyoming, the youngest daughter of Maurice Kelliher, Co. Kerry, and Mary Mahoney, Co. Cork, Ireland. 

She graduated from St. Anthony’s grade school and Natrona County High School.  She received an Associate of Arts degree from Casper College in 1953 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in education in 1955 from Loretta Heights College in Denver (now Regis University).  In 1955, she married John (Jack) B. Tripeny, Jr., pharmacist, and owner of Tripeny Drug Store.

With total acceptance of the role in life that was given to her, Pat wrote a summary of her life as of the year 1988:

 My husband died in 1971 following open heart surgery. (Pat was age 38).  We had adopted three sons and one daughter from infancy, and I continued to raise four children as a single parent.  They were ages 11, 10, 6, and 4 at the time of their father’s death.  My youngest son died in 1975 at the age of nine in a sledding accident in Colorado during a family Christmas vacation.  In 1981, my second youngest son died at the age of 18 in a car accident coming home for Christmas vacation.  (Pat would later lose her third son, age 40, heart attack, in 2001).  These losses…are significant events in my life and ultimately resulted in the direction I chose to respond to these tragedies…Through a strong family support system, psychological counseling, and a faith commitment, mother and daughter weathered many storms, and proved resilient to life, and grew through productive relationships.    I grew in awareness of the sensitivity and needs of others through experiential suffering, especially in the area of losing loved ones. 

Pat’s mother lived to be age 99, living in a nursing home for 12 years.  Pat, describes this as a “magnet to me in ministering to the elderly.”  Pat’s Catholic faith was important to her and she was active in the social justice ministry within her church and community, visiting the sick and homebound.  She served as a church organist at St. Anthony’s Church for numerous years.  She was a member of the local chapter of the American Guild of Organists.  She took the Hospice training course and found it to be a “very moving experience” and used it to serve a St. Anthony’s Church member during her dying months.  Pat was a Eucharistic minister.  She coordinated other ministers to visit the sick in the hospital, nursing homes, and the home-bound.  She participated in Pax Christi, Contemplative Outreach, RENEW, and the CARITAS faith community.  She served as a member of the board of directors for the Habitat of Humanity—Heart of Wyoming; served on the original Seton Board; and was active in Literary Volunteers of America for several years. 

Pat enjoyed Nordic skiing.  She loved to garden and valued her membership in the Town & Country Garden Club.  Pat cherished her visits with neighbors; participated in book clubs; and hosted family and friends in her lovely home.  She re-created the Tripeny Drug Store in the basement of her home.

Survivors include her daughter:  Ann Velarde; her sister-in-law, Lois Shickich; numerous nieces and nephews.   She was preceded in death by her husband, Jack; sons, Larry, Paul, and John; and her sisters, Rosaleen Webster, Mary Kelliher, BVM, and Rita Rochelle.   

The family expresses their gratitude to Hospice and Meadow Winds for their kindness and care.  In lieu of flowers, memorials are appreciated to:  St. Joseph’s Children’s Home, PO Box 1117, Torrington, WY 82240; the Blue Envelope Health Fund; Central Wyoming Hospice; or to the donor’s choice.

As Pat said, “Through joys and trials, I continue to thank God for what has been, what is happening in the present, and for whatever the future is in the here and hereafter.  Blessings to all.”