10/02/2024
Dr. Patricia Woods Prewitt, PhD
Professor Emeritus Baylor University
March 1st, 1933 — August 22nd, 2024
Patricia Woods Prewitt passed away on the evening of August 22nd at Baylor Scott & White Hillcrest Hospital in Waco, Texas. Her funeral will be held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on October 5th, at 1pm, with Bishop Jeff Fisher officiating. There will be no visitation; her ashes will be interred next to her parents’ graves in the cemetery in Bartlett, Texas.
She was born in Houston and began her education in the public schools of Galveston and Beaumont. After her father’s death in 1947, the family settled in Taylor, Texas where she completed studies at Taylor High School in 1951. While still in high school, she worked for the Taylor Daily Press, and developed a passion for journalism, serving as editor for a time and authoring a column called Teen Chat with Pat. She also met her future husband, George Peyton Prewitt, Jr. The two went on to attend college together, marrying in 1953 and completing their degrees at the University of Texas in 1954. By 1963 they had become the parents of four children. It was during the time of mothering her children that Patricia became interested in the study of psychology and human development.
She began her graduate studies at the University of Houston in 1965. Three years later she transferred to the Department of Educational Psychology at UT Austin, earning her Master of Arts degree there in 1970. She then went on to the Department of Special Education, Program for the Emotionally Disturbed and completed her doctoral studies there. Her Ph.D was awarded in 1974. During her years of graduate study, she worked for the Texas Education Agency and for Austin Community College. She was invited to join the UT faculty shortly after receiving her degree; her first post-doctoral year was spent teaching there.
At the end of that year, she went to work for the Texas Department of Mental Health and Retardation, chartering and opening a brief respite and care unit for the citizens of East Texas. In 1976, she spent a year teaching at Chadron State College in Nebraska to educate teachers who would be working in special education. In January of 1977 she began teaching at Baylor University where she was warmly welcomed. (Her parents had been students there when they met. She was also hailed for being a great niece of L.A. Woods, former Secretary of Education early on in the 20th century. Baylor still remembered him fondly.)
During her years at Baylor, she taught core courses in human development as well as courses focused on training students in the assessment, treatment, and care of special needs children, creating and directing the School Psychology Program that is still providing public schools with expertise in the care and education of children. She also delighted in teaching her students to run groups, which provided them with insight into themselves and into the nature of human relationships in general — wonderful tools for a career in educational psychology.
She took special delight in her year as an exchange professor (1982-83)
to Seinan Gakuin University, Fukuoka, Japan, where she researched ways of providing mental health services to Japanese school children.
Patricia was a kind, warm, and loving person with a sparkling sense of humor, devoted to her friends, family, and students. She was deeply loved and will be sorely missed. She never met a stranger; caring for other people was her life’s work. Even the workmen who came to her home to provide repairs found themselves telling her their entire life stories, complete with tales of children and grandchildren. She remained an avid reader to the end of her days, was deeply patriotic, and always passionately engaged in the political issues of the day, advocating for p***c education and the well-being of children. Her work brought her many many students, both local and international; they are serving children, teachers, and parents to this day.
She is preceded in death by her father, Grady Bennett Woods, her mother, Mary Dorothy Stokes Woods, and her brother, Michael Grady Woods.
She is survived by her daughter, Stephanie, and son-in-law, Steve Walthall; her daughter Laurie, and son-in-law, Todd Buchanan; her son Christopher, and daughter-in-law Lesley; her son Charles; her grandson, Andrew Buchanan; her granddaughter, Allison Buchanan Bugbee and family, Bruce Bugbee, great-grandsons, Bennett Bugbee and Declan Bugbee; her brother, Randall Bennett Woods, and sister-in-law Rhoda, and their family, her niece, Nicole Woods Olmstead & Tom Olmstead, her nephew Jeffrey Woods & Andrea Woods; and her dearest long-time friend, June Shipper.
The family invites you to leave a message or memory on the “Tribute Wall” at www.WHBfamily.com
Gifts in her memory can be made to the Bartlett Activities Center: http://bartlettactivitiescenter.org/home.aspx or Bartlett Activities Center, P.O. Box 724, Bartlett, Tx 76511.
"Patricia’s mother, Mary Dorothy, grew up in Bartlett. Her father had a cotton farm on land between Bartlett and Granger. Every summer, Patricia and her little brother, Michael, would ride the train from Galveston to Bartlett to visit their grandparents, Charles and Nora Stokes. They both had many fond memories of the community there, who were always kind to them and glad to see them. Patricia often spoke of the pleasure she took in those visits — the joy of riding the train and of catching that first glimpse of their granddaddy, pacing and checking his watch, anxious for their arrival, and the pleasure of finally arriving at their mother’s family home."
