Patricia Hutchings (Mawer) Heidenreich

Monday, September 28, 2020 4:38 pm

Patricia was born to Arthur Lionel Mawer and Helen Loise Hutchings on July 31, 1930 in St. Catherines, Ontario. 

Pat lived a life filled with wonder and curiosity. She adored the natural world and its web of intricacies. Nothing filled her with more joy than exploring a wild place she had never experienced before, watching a bird that she loved, or nurturing plants in her garden. Birding was her great passion – she was not so much interested in finding a bird she had not seen before, but in knowing the birds who lived where she was.  

Pat grew up as an only child. Throughout much of her life her mother was ill, but she had a very close relationship with her dad.  Her favorite memories of childhood were of times spent with him in nature, exploring in a rowboat and searching for blueberries, fishing, and soaking in his love of nature.

As a young woman she dreamed of becoming a botanist, but found that the local university did not accept women into the program. She then looked to nursing, and made her way to Chicago and became an RN at the Chicago Hospital for Sick Children. There she met Bill Heidenreich and left her nursing career to marry and move to Panama where he served in the Army. Panama was heaven for Pat because there she found a deep love for birds. Their tiny backyard was teeming with species she had never imagined, and huge bunches of bananas hung in the backyard, would bring in tanagers, honeycreepers, and parakeets. Pat and Bill traveled as much as possible while in Panama and they developed a deep appreciation for indigenous peoples and for living a simple life. They witnessed incredible poverty and let those experiences shape their lives. In the early 1960’s they returned to the United States, and started a family in Dubuque. They had two children, Kenneth Arthur, born April 2nd, 1963, and Pamela Gay, May 11th, 1965. Pat worked as a homemaker and as soon as her children were old enough, began teaching others about the natural world and becoming an activist in her community. She worked tirelessly to develop the first paper drive in Dubuque for recycling newspapers, and spent many afternoons going door to door collecting stacks of papers. This was her gateway into activism and she realized she had a passion to change the world for the better. She found the local Audubon Society Chapter in Dubuque and began what was to be a lifelong passion of protecting habitat for birds and for education. 

In 1978, they left Dubuque to live in Cedar City, Utah. Pat and Bill spent every spare moment exploring the wildlands of southern Utah, hiking and camping, and soon realized that they could help to protect these places. Together they worked to identify places jeopardized by overgrazing and mining interests and soon they were involved in politics.

The Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness is the fourth largest wilderness in the US, with over 50,000 acres. Ashdown Gorge Wilderness Area, known as the Twisted Forest for the stand of BristleCone Pines, some of the oldest living organisms on earth, at 4,852 years of age. These two wilderness areas, as well as many others, exist today because of Pat’s work, and are part of the legacy she left for all of us.

The raw natural beauty of Utah made Pat lonely for the lush Midwest, and they returned to Iowa in 1981 and bought a worn -out little farm by Marquette.  For the next twenty years Pat and Bill worked to transform the farm they called Hidden Hollow into a sanctuary, planting over 15,000 trees, putting in prairies, restoring woodlands and planting habitat for birds. Pat was an avid gardener, and for many years grew the majority of their vegetables.  

She continued her activism with her first trip to DC to advocate for the Clean Air Act. She helped develop the Northeast Iowa Audubon Chapter and was an active member for thirty years. Pat soon became involved in politics, first locally and then nationally.  She worked tirelessly for candidates who she believed would work to address growing environmental issues, educating them, and doing all she could to help them win elections. Her conservation and activism work eventually came to the attention of the National Audubon Society, and in 1985 she was elected to the National Board as a representative for the chapters throughout the country.  She served on the Board for over 10 years and believed strongly in the voice of the local groups and the environmental issues they were trying to address. 

Throughout her life, she and Bill were philanthropists, believing that if you have, you must give. They supported both political and environmental causes, as well as people in their lives who were dear to them.

HawkWatch at Effigy Mounds was a favorite event and Pat worked together with Pam to make it into a significant birding event in the midwest. She devoted herself to National Audubon’s Upper Mississippi River Campaign and worked to educate and protect the Upper Mississippi Wildlife Refuge – a place always near and dear to her heart.

 In 1999, Bill died after years of poor health. At this time, Pat decided to retire, and put aside her work as a political and environmental activist. She believed it was time to see the world and so she did — traveling all over the globe from Antarctica to Timbuktu. She saw the monarch migration site in Mexico, watched whales in Alaska, toured the Galapagos, Africa, and the pyramids in Egypt as well as many other places.  These were perhaps the happiest years of her life. She loved adventure, and was ever curious about new places and species.  She made dear friends on these journeys and enjoyed her memories for the rest of her life.

In 1993 she moved to Decorah to be closer to her grandchildren, Ming and Leo, and her daughter Pam. She found she loved Decorah and walked its neighborhoods and streets with her standard poodle, at her side.  

For the past four years she lived with Pam and the kids, ever patient with a bustling household of teenage energy.  She traveled a bit to see her son Ken and his family in Utah, and for the weddings of three of her grandchildren, Tiff, Brittani and Kenny. In August Pat went into Hospice and then into Barthell Eastern Star Nursing Home. She suffered from Parkinson’s Disease and in the end was overcome by dementia. Her last days were peaceful, and she moved toward death with dignity and grace.

She was above all else a woman of amazing strength. She did not back down from fear or intimidation. She had tremendous courage, and a deep passion for everything wild on this earth. Her legacy is that one individual can make a difference in this world and that we should never, ever, give up. 

She left behind her son Ken, of Parowan, Utah and his wife Alice, his four children Tiffany, Kenny, Brittani, and Kurtis, and five great grandchildren; her daughter, Pam (Heidenreich) Kester, of Decorah and her children Ming, and Leo; as well as their dogs Sunny and Nell. She also left behind the last thing on her bucket list – a Newfoundland pup named Otter.

A private family memorial celebration will be held at a future time to scatter Pat’s ashes into the wind. In honor of Pat, plant something for wildlife – a flower that attracts bees, a shrub that has winter berries for the birds or a tree for foraging…she would be grateful.

Fjelstul Funeral Home in Decorah is serving the family. Online condolences may be made at www.fjelstul.com