Tehachapi News

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The first of four daughters born to William Francis and Beatrice Emily Quinlan, Patricia Gail Quinlan, was born June 22, 1936, in Hornell, N.Y. She was raised in Merchantville, N.J., and began her own family shortly after graduating high school in 1954, when she married her high school sweetheart, Milford Harry Bell, Jr., and their first daughter Janice Loraine was born. By 1960, the family had grown to four children, and they moved to California, eventually settling in El Segundo, where the family continued to grow until there were 10 children in all.

In 1973, Patricia attended the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Academy and upon graduating, became a member of the El Segundo Police Force, where she attained the rank of detective - investigative division. It was while working there that she would meet Robert Roby, a fellow officer, who would eventually become her second husband.

Patricia went on to pursue a career in commercial real estate in the Palm Springs area, and then, combining her talents, moved into the field of security management, working at posh Palm Springs area country clubs. However, with her strong Christian faith and motherly nature she finally landed her dream job, the one she found the most fulfilling, director of an unwed teens pregnancy counseling center in Washington state.

Shortly after the death of her husband, Patricia moved to Tehachapi, in August of 2002, to live with her family after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. There she quickly assumed the role of Grandma to all of the children at the school bus stop in Sand Canyon, where she could be seen patiently awaiting the bus each afternoon with her constant companion, her German Shepherd, Max. When she wasn’t playing catch or shooting hoops with the kids, she’d be grooming Max, grooming her horse, or riding peacefully through the hills of Sand Canyon.

Patricia leaves behind Max and her horse, two sisters, 10 children, 31 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren. We will all miss her love, her warmth, and her always positive outlook on life, but her lessons on these subjects, which she continued to teach us to the very end, will always endure.

A memorial service for her is being planned for her birthday weekend this summer. Wood Family Funeral Service, Inc. handled the arrangements.