Pamela Pattie, a second-generation Morningside resident, has led a life defined by global exploration, a love of teaching, and an unwavering sense of adventure. Born in July 1941 in El Paso, Texas, Pamela has called many places home, from Panama and Germany to Egypt, France, Iran, and Morocco, before settling at The Chandler three years ago.

Pamela’s deep connection to Morningside spans decades. Both her parents lived at Morningside at The Meadows, with her mother Ann living there for 30 years, moving through independent living, assisted living, and long-term care. In 2022, Pamela herself moved into another Morningside community at The Chandler Estate shortly after its renovation and reopening in Monte Vista. She became one of the first residents of the new Chandler along with Diane and Allen, friends she had met while swimming at the San Antonio Natatorium.

Pamela’s early years were deeply influenced by her father’s military career. Her father, Charles, began as a reserve officer in the Civilian Conservation Corps before transferring to the U.S. Army’s horse cavalry, where he served as a lieutenant. He met Pamela’s mother in Livingston, Texas, and the couple eventually married and settled in El Paso. Pamela was the eldest of three children, and she had two younger brothers, one born in Huntsville, Texas, and the other in Columbia, South Carolina. When Pamela was still a baby, her father was deployed to the Philippines during World War II, and her mother moved the family back to Huntsville to live with her parents. After the war, her father’s Army career took the family to Panama when Pamela was five. Her first foreign language was Spanish, which she learned during her years there, before the family eventually moved back to San Antonio when she was in third grade.

Pamela’s childhood was a tapestry of relocations: elementary school in San Antonio at James Madison Elementary, where she was a Girl Scout Brownie; junior high in Zweibrücken, Germany; and high school in Missouri, South Carolina, and finally San Antonio, where she graduated from Jefferson High School. Even then, she remained connected to friends from her earlier years at James Madison.

After high school, Pamela attended San Antonio College, earning her associate’s degree and enjoying water sports and swimming. She then transferred to the University of Texas at Austin to study History and Government, and it was her Government professor, Carl Leiden, fresh from teaching at the American University in Cairo, who profoundly influenced her path. Inspired, Pamela dreamed of joining the Diplomatic Corps, but when that didn’t materialize, she turned to teaching. She began at the Defense Language Institute at Lackland AFB, where she taught students from Libya, Vietnam, and beyond, even recording language tapes for the institute.

That first job ignited Pamela’s lifelong passion for teaching abroad. She joined her Presbyterian church’s missionary program and taught English at a Coptic Evangelical school for girls in Cairo, Egypt. Living with a senior missionary named Lois, she spent two years teaching, even climbing the Pyramids during her time there, an experience that is no longer permitted today. While in Egypt, Pamela earned a summer scholarship from the British Council to study literature in Aberdeen, Scotland, where she met Nicole, a Frenchwoman who became a lifelong friend. Pamela also picked up Arabic while in Egypt and later added Persian and French to her repertoire.

Her journey then took her to Tehran, Iran, where she taught English to housewives during the day and businessmen and university students at night. During the intervening summers, she worked as a counselor at an international camp in Davos, Switzerland. After her time in Iran, she took a sabbatical to study French in Tours, France. She also visited her friend Nicole in Rambouillet, France, and by chance, she discovered that a new Australian hire had never arrived for a teaching assistant position at the local school, and she stepped into the role. Pamela worked there for a year before returning to San Antonio, where she had not seen her family for three years.

Back home, Pamela resumed her civil servant position at the Defense Language Institute. It was there that the commandant introduced her to Chandler Robins III, his old West Point roommate. Pamela and Chandler got engaged and married in 1970 at the Fort Sam chapel. Their marriage took them to Kansas, Florida, and eventually Vienna, Austria, a dream post for Pamela. Chandler worked at The American Embassy, while Pamela taught English and nurtured her love of opera, often attending performances from the American ambassador’s box.

When Chandler’s career brought him back to the U.S., Pamela pursued a fellowship through the University of Illinois to study Persian in Tehran. The couple’s lives eventually took different paths, and they divorced. Pamela stayed in Tehran during what she calls the most interesting time of her life, teaching English at the University of Tehran and working on her Master’s in TEFL from 1977 until the 1979 Revolution. She stayed through street gunfire, tanks rolling past her street, and the shutdown of the university before eventually evacuating on a yellow school bus to the airport, carrying jewelry instead of cash after her mother wisely advised her that valuables would be safer than currency. She was then flown out by the U.S. Air Force to Greece, then home.

Pamela’s teaching career abroad, however, was far from over. She taught for five more years at the American University in Cairo, followed by two years in Bangkok, Thailand. She spent a year in Boulder, Colorado, but soon returned overseas, holding her longest position in Oman, where she taught for 12 years. She later taught in Cairo again, as well as in Beirut, Damascus, and Rabat, Morocco. Her work often placed her in volatile regions. During the 2006 conflict in Beirut, she had to evacuate, leaving the country by hovercraft.

In 2009, Pamela returned to the United States for good to care for her aging mother. She supported her mother at The Meadows, volunteered at her church, and spent summers writing fiction at the University of Wisconsin. When her mother passed, Pamela became her executor. In 2022, she moved to Morningside at The Chandler, continuing her family’s legacy as a second-generation Morningside resident.

Though Pamela misses her jet-setting lifestyle, she appreciates the comfort, friendships, and community she has at The Chandler. She enjoys the reading club and Saturday Movie Nights in the Club Room, embracing the next chapter of a life that has been nothing short of extraordinary.

Pamela Pattie’s story is one of curiosity, courage, and a belief in exploring the world, and it reminds us that a meaningful life can span continents before coming full circle back to a place called home.