Melvin ‘Pat’ Kirkpatrick

Longtime Palmer resident Pat Kirkpatrick, 71, passed away peacefully April 19, 2015, at home, surrounded by family, after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease.

Services are at 1 p.m., April 25 at the LDS church in Palmer with a visitation from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

Pat was born April 2, 1944, in Wendell, Idaho, to Ennis H. and Edna May Seehorn Kirkpatrick. He graduated from Wendell High School in 1962. From 1963 to 1969, he served in the U.S. Navy as a corpsman, and in Vietnam attached to the 3rd Marine Recon Battalion, Charlie Company from 1966 to 1967.

He married Shawna Lee Williams in Downey, Idaho, on Jan. 25, 1969.

Pat received a degree in X-ray Technology from Boise State College in 1971, and he earned his degree as a PA-C from University of Utah in 1973. Along with his family, Pat lived and practiced medicine in several different places, including Spanish Fork, Utah; Downey, Idaho, and Palmer from 1974 to 2005.

Pat and his family’s love of Alaska brought them back home to Palmer in 1986 where he practiced medicine at Family Medicine of Alaska until his retirement in 2005. He gave a lifetime of loving service to his patients and within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Pat had a great love of the outdoors and enjoyed fishing, hunting, kayaking, camping, hiking, running marathons and skiing.

Pat is survived by his wife, Shawna Kirkpatrick; children, Rachelle Carter, Tammy Kirkpatrick, Michael (Kara) Kirkpatrick, Karen (Philip) Meier, Danielle (Allen) Keller, Shawn (Heidi) Kirkpatrick; and 11 grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his brothers, Neal and Galen Kirkpatrick; and son-in-law Anthony Carter.

The life of this truly amazing man has had a great impact both on his family and the community in which he lived.