Patricia Hillyer

Dover, N.H. — Patricia Margaret Hillyer, 85, died peacefully on Sept. 28, 2018, with her family at her side. She was born on Feb. 18, 1933, in New London, the eldest daughter of William and Margaret Baldwin, and attended St. Joseph School and Harbor School before graduating from Williams Memorial Institute in 1951. Pat was a starting player on the WMI varsity basketball team for all four years of high school, and during her senior year the team completed an undefeated season.

She also enjoyed playing the violin and played in the All-State orchestra in Hartford and in the All-New England Orchestra as chair of the second violin section. Arthur Fiedler, conductor of the Boston Pops, was the conductor. On Feb. 14, 1953, she married the late Ira B. Hillyer. They raised a family of 15 children, and over the years also provided a temporary home to an additional 10 foster children.

Pat returned to school when her children were grown, graduating from ECSU with a B.A. degree in sociology and applied social relations. She began her career as an investigator for the State of Connecticut Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities in 1986, and spent the next 23 years working there, retiring in July 2009.

In the early 1990s, she had begun to play the violin again, performing with the URI Orchestra for two seasons and the Pfizer orchestra for 10 years. She maintained a lifetime interest in basketball and was a dedicated fan of the UConn women’s team. Her sister, Mary, passed away in April of 2017; Patricia is survived by her brother Francis X. Baldwin and by her children, David and his wife Ann-Marie, Michael and his wife Gail, Mary and her husband Mark, Margaret and her husband Gary, Kathryn and her husband Kevin, Stephen, Joseph and his partner Julie Samuels, Martha and her husband Jim, Dennis and his wife Denise, Paula and her husband John, Ira “Chris” and Toni, Amy, Anne and her husband Craig, Nathaniel, and John and his partner Melanie Greenleaf, as well as by 35 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren.

A Mass of Christian Burial will take place at St. Agnes Church in Niantic on Wednesday, Oct 3, at 11 a.m. Visitation will be held at Thomas L. Neilan Funeral Home in New London on Tuesday, Oct. 2, from 5 to 7 p.m. Donations can be made in her memory to The Williams School in New London.