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Volunteer Spotlight: Pat Hyland

Meet OLLI At-Large Executive Committee Member Pat Hyland. 

Born in South Fulton, a small town in Northwest Tennessee, Pat attended the University of Tennessee, majoring in Civil Engineering. He met Susan Skibinski during his sophomore year. The couple were married in 1967 and have two sons.

The Hylands moved to St Louis when Pat accepted a job with Monsanto in the Environmental Group of their Corporate Engineering Department (CED). He took night classes at Washington University and earned an MS in Environmental Engineering. He retired in 2014 as Director of Environmental, Safety, Health, and Security for Israel Chemicals Limited, Americas.

In his words, OLLI gives Pat the opportunity to “fill in the gaps” in his education and experience. He believes that a successful retirement needs to be balanced in the following categories: Intellectual, Social, Creative, and Physical. 

“The OLLI classes obviously cover the Intellectual and Social categories. The Creative category can be met by volunteering to be a Zoom moderator; assist in the office on special projects; prepare and make short presentations in certain classes; or facilitate/teach a class. I suppose taking the stairs to the garage would fall into the Physical category,” Hyland said. 

Prior to being elected as a member at large of the Executive Committee in 2021, Pat had taken over 45 classes and made presentations in classes on STEM and on Churchill.  He said it’s impossible to pick a favorite OLLI learning experience – he has enjoyed so many of the courses here.