Raconteur, folklore professor, founder and director of the UL Honors program and teacher for 50 years, civil rights activist, and friend of everyone who came to her, Pat Rickels died last night at the age of 82.
“Dr. Pat was such a wonderful woman, and she gave it all,” says UL Honors program director Dr. Julia Frederick, who took over after Rickels retired in 2007. “She was the heart of the Honors program for 30 years. She created the rock on which it stood, she believed in her students and gave that fervor to her students.”