Former Yuba College president dies
Former Yuba College President Superintendent Patricia Wirth died Nov. 17 in Vancouver, Wash. She was 86.
She arrived at the college in February 1984 when it was under scrutiny by the Yuba County grand jury and by college accreditation officials, according to AppealDemocrat archives.
She re-engineered the school’s administration and set up training seminars for trustees, the archives continued.
Wirth retired on Dec. 31, 1994, citing personal reasons.
She was here when women were just starting to “break the ceiling” in different areas, said Miriam Root, executive assistant to the Yuba Community College District chancellor and board of trustees.
Wirth hired Root as a part-time public information for the college in 1986.
“She was very involved in the YubaSutter Chamber of Commerce,” Root said, and was one of the first to receive its Athena Award as the outstanding woman leader in the community in 1989.
Wirth was also one of the first female members, and first female president, of the Yuba Feather Sunrise Rotary Club, Root said.
Her memberships also included the Yuba-Sutter Professionals Network for Women and Yuba-Sutter United Way.
Wirth was born in Hebron, N.D., and moved with her parents to Vancouver, Wash., as a child.
She earned an associate’s degree from Clark College in Vancouver; a bachelor’s degree with a major in business administration at Portland State University; an MBA from Portland State University; and a Ph.D. from the University of Idaho, Moscow.
Wirth served in various administrative positions at colleges and junior colleges and served on numerous commissions, councils and committees, including the American Association of Community and Junior Colleges board of directors from 1986-89; AACJ Joint Commission on Federal Relations as vice chair for nursing issues; California Association of Community Colleges Commission on Legislation and Finance from 1988-91 and California Community Colleges Chief Executive Officers board of directors from 1991-94.
Arrangements were under the direction of Vancouver Funeral Chapel in Vancouver, Wash.