Patricia Eileen Gottier, born on July 12, 1949, beloved wife of Bruce Kaufmann, and daughter of the late Albert and Helen Gottier, passed away peacefully at her home after a courageous battle with cancer.
Patti attended elementary school in Tolland and graduated at the top of her class from Ellington High School in 1966. She received her BA from Bucknell University in 1970 and attended graduate school at Columbia University. Patti married Bruce Kaufmann in 1982 and they made their permanent home on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. She worked for various fundraising and financial organizations, and then started her own retirement planning company, “Retirement Directions LLC”. Patti was a gifted pianist and played the entire piano scores for many musical productions at Ellington High School; she later studied advanced piano in NYC, and she especially loved to play Rachmaninoff. Patti had a passion for fly-fishing. She and Bruce spent many summers fishing in the Catskill Mountains. She realized a life goal by fishing in Patagonia with her niece Amy and family just before her cancer diagnosis. Patti was an avid fan of tennis and cycling, and closely followed her niece Annie’s competitive running and cycling careers. She and Bruce traveled widely across Europe, and she loved sharing elaborate stories of her travels and other life experiences. On the simpler side of life, Patti especially enjoyed baking apple pie and decorating her apartment and Christmas tree. She deeply treasured her many cats since childhood, each holding a very special place in her heart.
Besides her husband Bruce, she leaves her sister and brother-in-law, Janet and Philip LaPointe of Millinocket, Maine; brother and sister-in-law, Robert and Lisa Gottier of Tolland; a brother, Tim Gottier of Stafford; a sister and brother-in-law, Rosemary and Greg Toth of Tolland; a sister-in-law Susan Kaufmann of Ann Arbor, Michigan; and many nieces and nephews including Amy and Annie Toth, with whom she was very close.
Patti’s family would like to thank her home caregivers, and her many close friends, neighbors, and relatives who reached out to her until her final days, especially her lifelong friend Charlie Hatheway of Ellington.
The family intends to hold a memorial gathering for Patti sometime in the near future at the Toth/Gottier homestead, her childhood home.
Published by Journal Inquirer from Aug. 13 to Aug. 17, 2022.
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