Patricia E. (Kowalski) Presutti of North Tonawanda, NY died at Hospice House on Friday April 25, 2014. The daughter of the late Stella and John Kowalski, she was born on November 30, 1944.

On December 30, 1975, she married Robert Presutti, a fellow Lew-Port teacher. He was a husband of infinite patience who graciously agreed to moving several times so Pat could do more decorating. Pat was a devoted wife, daughter, a good step-mother and grammy and a special friend. In addition to her husband, she is survived by stepson Matthew (Meghan) Presutti and grandchildren Micaela, Maeve and Maura of Lebanon, NJ; stepdaughter Rebecca (Gerard) Goris and grandchildren Katherine and Ethan of North Tonawanda, NY; sister Dorothy (Stephan) Garry of Silver Spring, MD; several nieces and nephews, special cousins, Kathleen little, Walt and Karen Kazial, Lew Kazial, Lorri and Pat Barrett, Flo Danielewicz Dobrasz, and best friends Louise and Thomas Yots.

Pat grew up on Ely Avenue and East Falls Street and attended Sugar Street and Niagara Street Schools, Gaskill Junior High, and Niagara Falls High, class of 1962. She earned a BA in French from UB and MA in English from Buffalo State College and taught both those subjects at Lewiston-Porter Senior High starting in 1967.

Pat's loves were literature, music and art. Pat was an accomplished pianist, having taken lessons for eleven years. She often accompanied the chorus while in school and loved playing show tunes while her friends sang. For several years, she was a member of the rainbow Singers in Niagara Falls. A highlight of belonging to her college chorus was singing Verdi's Te Deum with the Buffalo Philharmonic at Kleinhan's Music Hall. An ongoing project was to play "All the things You Are" on any piano she came across. She did this in 15 states, seven foreign countries, in a chicken coop once, and on a Buffalo street where a piano had been discarded with the trash and the keys fell off as she played.

Pat considered herself just a dabbler in art until taking a summer collage workshop at Buff State. There she refined her skills in mixed media and began to work more seriously. This sparked a new career of selling original art work at summer art shows. For 14 years, she exhibited locally at the Lewiston, Allentown and Elmwood Avenue shows, in Rochester at the Clothesline and Corn Hill Shows, and at various other shows in western New York. She won first prize at Clothesline the first year she exhibited there and over the years won many other awards as well. Her favorite sale was to a French couple who were taking their collage back to Paris. Pat was a past member of the Niagara Society of Artists and Buffalo Society of Artists. Continuing to educate herself with art history classes, she passed on her love of art to students, stepchildren and grandchildren.

Pat was a member of the Albright-Knox, the Burchfield, the Buffalo Zoo, the Buffalo Museum of Science and the Buffalo Historical Society. She was a long-time season ticket member of Studio Arena and attended Shaw Festival several times each summer. Pat played golf, wrote poetry, planned creative practical jokes, made her own Christmas cards and valentines, and loved gardening.

Pat and Bob travelled extensively; her favorite trip was to Paris for her 60 ^th birthday. Among their extensive European trips, in 2001 they spent a month in Krakow, Poland as teachers of English, and Pat was able to explore the region where her grandparents were born. She and Bob made good friends there who have travelled to the U.S. and stayed with them; one coupled wanted to be married here and the Presutti's arranged their wedding.

In 2008 Pat was diagnosed with Multiple Systems Atrophy, a condition related to ALS and Parkinson's diseases. In lieu of flowers, donations to the MSA foundation, the Lewiston Public Library, and cultural institutions would be a fitting tribute.

There will be no prior visitation. Family and friends are invited to attend a service of remembrance on Saturday May 17 ^th beginning at 3:00 p.m. at the M.J. COLUCCI & SON NIAGARA FUNERAL CHAPEL 2730 MILITARY ROAD NIAGARA FALLS, NY. Interment of ashes will be on Cape Cod where she visited friends every year.