Whatever Happened To... Sister Patricia Eeckhout DLS English Teacher 2000-2012 DLS Business Office 2012 - present A decade of Pilots enjoyed English classes with Sr. Pat Eeckhout, CDP. The genial nun with a droll sense of humor taught a variety of grade levels, including Sophomore Honors and Senior English. She also served as the National Honor Society moderator. But when Sr. Pat stepped away from the classroom in 2012, after nearly 40 years of teaching high school English, she just walked down the hall to the DLS Business Office. Her duties in the Business Office include accounts payable, tuition, organizing volunteers, the Scrip Program for tuition credit, and various other tasks. The job has required Sr. Pat to learn a whole new skill, bookkeeping and accounting, and she utilizes “Quickbooks” to handle the processing of check requests, deposits, and department budgeting.
Mrs. Vicki Granger, then Chair of the English Department, said, “We were delighted to have Sr. Pat join us. Her years of experience and knowledge really added to the department.”
“I love working with students and teachers on a different level in the Business Office. I also enjoy all the excitement of working with our great students at De La Salle Collegiate.”
Sr. Pat lives in the area, in a house in Roseville, with other members of her congregation who are associated with the Archdiocese of Detroit. She travels to PA a few times a year for CDP retreats and community gatherings.
A Detroit-area native, Sr. Pat attended St. Isaac Jogues Grade School and St. Gertrude High School. She entered the novitiate of the Congregation of Divine Providence (CDP), in Pittsburgh, PA, in 1971.
When not at DLS, Sr. Pat enjoys volunteering at St. Clement’s, in Center Line. She also enjoys golfing she’s golfed in leagues - as well as biking, working out at the gym, gardening, and cooking.
For six years, from 1974 - 1980, Sr. Pat taught at Bishop Canevan High School, in Pittsburgh, PA, before returning to the Detroit area. The CDP sisters taught at Our Lady Queen of Peace Grade School, in Harper Woods, as well as Bishop Gallagher High School, on the same campus. Christian Brothers from the Chicago province were also at Bishop Gallagher, which had 1,400 students in 1980.
To contact Sr. Pat, email her at peeckhout@delasallehs.com
In 2000, Sr. Pat joined the De La Salle faculty, as the “Gallagher” student population had dwindled to 140. (Bishop Gallagher closed in 2005).
NOTE: Sr. Pat has not been the only religious sister on the DLS faculty. Her colleagues included the late Sr. Nancy Bartolo, IHM (see page 37), and Sr. Alice Kotwick, OSM. Sr. Nancy continued to substitute teach and accompany students on retreat following her retirement from the classroom in 2001. Sr. Alice is no longer teaching but helps in the DLS bookstore, the Pilot Hangar, several days a week. She also accompanies students on retreats.
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