Remembering Dr. Pat Ferro

On July 22, 2024, Dr. Patrick 'Pat' Ferro passed away peacefully with his loved ones by his side. A Memorial Mass was held at St Aloysius Church on August 17, with a Celebration of Life following at Cataldo Hall's Globe Room. Several Gonzaga faculty, staff, and alumni gathered with Dr. Ferro's many friends and family, sharing stories of this outstanding mechanical engineer who had been granted emeritus status. 

Dr. Ferro prepared his own obituary, which Gonzaga shares below with the blessing of his family. 

Patrick ‘Pat’ Dunn Ferro was born on January 27, 1961 in Detroit, Michigan, the third of Peggy Dunn and Joe Ferro’s five children. He attended public schools in southeast Michigan and graduated in 1979 as the valedictorian of Temperance Bedford High School. In high school, Pat ran track and cross country, and played the tuba. He attended Cornell University, majoring in Materials Science and Engineering. He ran his first of nearly fifty marathons as a sophomore at Cornell, finishing the Finger Lakes Marathon in 3:47 at the young age of 19. Other marathons that he ran during his life included the Pike’s Peak Marathon, the Crater Lake Marathon, ten Portland Marathons and the Boston Marathon. He qualified for Boston at the Missoula Marathon at age 50.

After graduation, Pat moved to Portland, Oregon for his first engineering job as a foundry process engineer at Precision Castparts. Pat considered himself a Pacific Northwesterner for the rest of his life. The Saltveit family of Portland, cousins of Pat through the Dunn family lineage, adopted him and treated him as a brother. Pat enjoyed spending time in the mountains and began climbing Cascade volcanoes. One of his significant accomplishments was reaching the summit of Mt. Rainier in July 1984 with his good friend Rick.

Pat moved to Golden, Colorado in 1990 to begin doctoral studies in metallurgical and materials engineering at the Colorado School of Mines. In graduate school, he met the love of his life, Susanne Claypool. Susanne was a marathoner and was earning her graduate degree in Physical Therapy when the two were married in Golden, Colorado in 1992. After earning his PhD in extractive metallurgy, Pat and Susanne moved back to Portland and Pat resumed working for Precision Castparts. Pat also discovered his true career calling as an academic instructor, and began teaching in the engineering programs at Clackamas Community College, the University of Portland and Washington State University-Vancouver.

The first of Pat and Susanne’s two children, Cecilia Claypool, was born in Portland in 2000. In 2002, Pat moved back to Michigan to join a Detroit startup company that was prototyping hydrogen-powered vehicles. Pat was a test engineer, focused on the materials and technologies used for onboard hydrogen storage. The second of Pat and Susanne’s children, Theodore Claypool, was born in Troy in 2003.

In 2004, Pat donated one of his kidneys to his brother Frank so that his brother could survive a kidney disease. The kidney and his brother are both in good health twenty years after the donation surgery. Pat was also a prolific blood donor, and achieved ‘fifteen gallon donor’ status in 2022.

Pat accepted his first full-time academic position as an Assistant Professor of Engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (Terre Haute, IN) and taught there from 2005 until 2009.

In 2009, the family moved to Spokane, Washington so that Pat could teach engineering at Gonzaga University. Pat was proud to be not only Gonzaga faculty, but also alumnus, as he took courses from the Business School and was awarded his MBA degree in 2024. He had great respect for all universities, but Pat considered himself a Zag above all else.

Pat was an avid learner of Chinese language and culture. He traveled to China several times throughout his life. In the summer of 2018, Pat worked in China for a month, teaching at Tianjin University (near Beijing). His students were Chinese engineering professors and scholars that were interested in learning about US methods for engineering pedagogy. Pat was always grateful for his network of Chinese speaking friends, who helped him learn their language and culture.

Pat’s favorite activity and hobby was playing the tuba. Pat played in several ensembles in Spokane including the Lilac City Community Band, the Spokane Falls Community College Concert Band and the Gonzaga Wind Ensemble. He was also a fair piano player, and regularly played Vince Guaraldi's 'Linus and Lucy' riff for his family. He also enjoyed crossword puzzles and would proudly announce the rare completion of a Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle. He liked swimming, and frequently swam the Longbridge Swim (across Lake Pend Oreille) with his son Theodore. Pat was a lifelong Catholic who also found great insight in other faiths and ideas.

His family includes his immediate family (Susanne, Cecilia and Theodore), his Tucson relatives (Hauers and George), his Portland family (Saltveits) and his original Michigan siblings (Frank, Meg, Bob, Mary, Ron, Charlie, Kristin) and their many children.

To celebrate Dr. Ferro’s memory and contributions to Gonzaga and his students, his colleagues wish to establish an endowed chair in the Mechanical Engineering Department called the “Dr. Pat Ferro Distinguished Chair of Materials Engineering.”