Patricia Louise Hoover

Dr. Patricia “Tish” Louise (Duerksen) Hoover, 82, died on Friday, May 28, 2021.  Tish was born in Hillsboro, KS to George H. and Louise M. (Dalke) Duerksen on June 7, 1938. 

After a childhood spent between Kansas and Oklahoma, Tish graduated high school in Bartlesville, OK., then earned her bachelor's degree in Music Education from the University of Kansas. The community of friends that she found in the KU chapter of the Alpha Phi sorority highlighted her undergraduate years, and she stayed active with Alpha Phi well into her teaching career. After a year of graduate school at KU, she set out alone to backpack around Europe for a year. After a year of international adventures - which would make thrilling bedtime stories for her children in the decades to come - she returned to the USA and soon thereafter began her music teaching career in 1962 with the public schools in Port Washington, NY.  It was there that she met and married Norman Hoover, a fellow teacher. The young couple had their first child, Brian, in NY, and then moved across the country to Oregon. Tish and Norm both earned their Masters and Ph.D’s at the University of Oregon: Tish a Doctorate of Musical Arts and Norm a Doctorate of Biology and Science Education. They had their second child, Scott, in Oregon. Having experienced both US coasts, they moved to the middle of the country, first to Minnesota and then to Illinois, and added a third child, Kim. Always looking for adventure and variety, after a decade in Illinois the family moved south to Arkansas, happy to escape the cold northern winters. 

During her professional career, Tish taught at Carrie Palmer Jr. High, University of Minnesota, DePaul University in Chicago, Elmhurst College, and Arkansas Tech University (ATU).  Always musically active beyond teaching, she was the Executive Director of the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Dale Clevenger, and started and conducted a university/community orchestra at ATU. While at ATU, she also developed and ran a summer arts camp for kids, Arts Encounter, which was well received and continued for many summers.  “Dr Mom” (as she was known to students) retired in 2000 after 17 years at ATU.

In 2001, Tish and Norm retired to North Carolina, where she collaborated with the architect in the design of their home in Fearrington Village. In NC, she taught several courses at the Duke University’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, played keyboard with the Dixie Dukes Swing Band, and was a member of the United Church of Chapel Hill. After Norm’s death in 2012, Tish was a founding member of Durham Central Park Cohousing Community and relished several intense years participating in the design and construction of their building, where she then lived out her years. 

Tish will be remembered for her mentorship and kindness. The Dr’s Hoover’s household was a warm and welcoming temporary home for exchange students, relatives, graduate students, visiting professors, and anyone else who needed a place to stay for a while. Beginning with the cabin in Colorado, Tish loved to design and build onto her unique homes.  A major delight in her family’s life was the summers the young family spent in Colorado, camping by a stream while building a second cabin on their idyllic mountain lot. At her request, her ashes will join Norm’s ashes, spread across this mountain property. 

Tish loved the arts in all their forms, and sought to bring creativity and joy into the world around her however possible; specially ordering a mid-century modern purple velvet couch and then designing 50 years worth of living rooms around it, participating in summer theater orchestras, collecting art glass, hosting jazz band concerts in her living room, and fearlessly living her own style. She enjoyed swimming and was a voracious reader.

Tish is survived by her son Brian Hoover and wife Julie of Milton, VT; son Scott Hoover and wife Chutikan of Cary, NC; daughter Kim Hoover and husband Michael of Sauviac, France; her purple velvet couch; and 5 grandchildren, Christopher, Logan, Patrick, Alex, and Selena Hoover.  She was preceded in death by her husband, Norm; and brother George L. Duerksen of Lawrence, KS. 

A celebration of her life was held on June 7, 2021 on what would have been her 83 Birthday. The joyous occasion, rich with music and memories, was held in her beloved Durham Central Park Cohousing Community in Durham, NC.