Remembering Judge Patricia Broderick ’71

Remembering Judge Patricia Broderick ’71

(Judge Patricia Broderick ’71 discussing her book Reinventing the Wheel at Trinity on October 24, 2024)

See: Washington Post Obituary for Judge Broderick

Note about Memorial Service: According to this lovely remembrance of Judge Broderick on Legacy.com , “At Pat’s direction, there will be no memorial service. A celebration of life via zoom will be held at a later date. To participate, please send your name, how you knew Pat, and your email address to lisajoyz@hotmail.com”

Before she was a highly respected judge at D.C. Superior Court, before her well-earned reputation as a brilliant lawyer and prosecutor, before she was a champion for disability rights, Patricia Broderick (Patti to her friends) was one of us — a Trinity student — a smart, adventurous, curious and daring young woman who yearned to make a difference, to see and experience the world, and to learn as much as she could about how she could make the world a better place. She came to Trinity from her home in New Jersey in 1967, joining the Class of 1971 as a Sociology major. She thought she would be a social worker, tapping into her zeal to experience the world by spdending the summer after sophomore year on a service trip to Ecuador. Then, in the summer after her junior year, she and her friends took a fateful road trip to see America, traveling far and wide before ending in a crash on the side of I-70 near Washington, Pennsylvania.

Pat Broderick died last week at age 75. Even though that crash right before her senior year left her paralyzed, she learned to navigate the highways and byways of life with tremendous courage, determination and a real zest for demonstrating time and again that she could do anything that other people could do.

I remember first seeing her on campus when I was a Trinity freshwoman in 1971 — Patti returned to Trinity to finish her degree in Spring ’71, working hard to catch up and complete all degree requirements so she could graduate that May. But unlike other students, she had to navigate the long hills and bumpy roads and sidewalks of Trinity in a wheelchair — this was an age long before the Americans with Disabilities Act, and getting around our campus was not easy. Every time I saw her wheeling up Cuvilly driveway or around our buildings, I marveled at her strength and determination to show all of us how to live a great life despite setbacks.

After graduation, Pat earned a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling at George Washington University, and then embarked on a career as a probation officer. That experience ignited her desire to study law, and she soon earned her J.D. at Catholic University and embarked on her brilliant legal career as a U.S. Attorney. In 1998 she became an associate judge at D.C. Superior Court where she earned a reputation as being tough but fair, presiding over felony cases in the Criminal Division and then later moving to Family Court.

Judge Broderick was at Trinity just last October to discuss her book Reinventing the Wheel. What was most notable about her presentation —- and a tone that suffuses the book — is her utter lack of self-pity or regret. She proudly discussed her many trips — 66 countries! — and her love for skiing. She recounted the ways in which encounters with barriers and discrimination incentivized her to rise above them, to find ways to demonstrate her competence and capacity for excellence in the face of doubts and outright prejudice. She never wanted to be an icon for disability rights, but she lent her story and influence to making changes that promoted accessibility whether facing physical barriers or limitations on professional potential.

Let us remember Judge Patricia Broderick with thanks and appreciation for her marvelous examples of excellence, professionalism, compassion and courage. Her friends, classmates and associates will surely miss her very much, but we will smile with joy as we remember her example of meeting life’s challenges with an unending reservoir of positive energy. She leaves this world a far better place for her engagement with it.