Jen Clay
Staff Writer
Pepperdine is mourning the loss of long-time physical education professor Patricia “Patti” Bright, who died Sept. 8 after a battle with heart disease. She was 63.
Photo courtesy of pattibright.net
Bright with her sister Nancy Evans at their yearly trip to a ranch.
A University of Southern California graduate, Bright served the Pepperdine community as women’s volleyball coach from 1975 to 1978. The team won several league championships and was nationally ranked under her guidance. She began teaching physical education at the university in 1979 and continued to teach hiking and general education P.E. courses until her health declined this summer.
An All-American athlete, Bright competed in the 1964 Tokyo games and the 1968 Mexico City games as a member of the U.S. Olympic Volleyball team. Over the course of her life, she participated in 47 National Volleyball Championships as a player and was inducted into the Volleyball Hall of Fame in 1996.
Bright’s students remember her as a P.E. professor who jogged with them every step of the way.
Senior Mamie Young, who took Bright’s P.E. course four years ago, said Bright had the energy of “20 three-year-olds combined.”
“Whatever she wanted us to do, she did it herself,” Young said.
Head men’s volleyball coach Marv Dunphy said he has known Bright since the 1970s when they coached the men’s and women’s volleyball teams. Dunphy said Bright was a perfectionist.
“I think she demanded a lot,” Dunphy said. “People would say, ‘Well it was just P.E. 199.’ To her it wasn’t. You know, she was going to help people with their lives and she did.”
President Andrew K. Benton said in an e-mail interview that Bright was a treasured part of the Pepperdine community and a professor students appreciated.
“Students for years have complained about her tough classes, all the while admiring her and appreciating her encouragement and example.”
University Chaplain D’esta Love is working with Bright’s friends and family to plan the memorial service, tentatively set for Oct. 2 at 11 a.m. Bright’s daughter, Bonnie Counts-Bright, plans to hold the service on Pepperdine’s Stotsenberg Track.
“My mom taught so many classes up on that track and so many of her students have come back to her to say how thankful they are that she taught them how to bring health and exercise into their lives,” she said.
In addition to setting up grass volleyball courts and children’s-height nets on the grassy area at the center of the track, Counts-Bright hopes people will run and walk around the track during the service. A freelance artist, she has created a Web site, www.pattibright.net, is offering “I’m Jogging with Patti” T-shirts for service attendees. Counts-Bright and her sister incorporated their mother’s uniform number two as well as her baby blue-colored eyes into the T-shirt’s design.
Dunphy, who is helping the family organize the service, said he believes Bright’s commitment to her students will prove her lasting Pepperdine legacy.
“She wasn’t well-connected on campus except for the kids,” Dunphy said. “As I say that, I kind of laugh – ‘except for the kids.’ I mean, why are we here? We’re here for the kids, and she was in every sense.”
Dunphy, the men’s volleyball coach, who once saw Bright receive a one-minute standing ovation during an on-campus halftime ceremony honoring former Olympians, said he will miss the 30-plus years of friendship he had cultivated with her.
“She was a very, very loyal person to her husband, to her family, to the students and to her peers,” Dunphy said.
Young, who plans to attend the service, said Bright was one of the best Pepperdine professors she has had and a one-of-a-kind individual she doesn’t think she will see the likes of again.
“If could find another Patti Bright, that would be nearly a miracle,” Young said. “I believe in miracles, but I’m not holding my breath.”
All members of the Pepperdine community are invited to attend Bright’s Oct. 2 memorial service. For more information, visit www.pattibright.net.
09-16-2004
