Patricia & Douglas Bosma

Patricia Elizabeth (Uspel) Bosma, June 4th, 1938 - December 20, 2025

Douglas Arthur Bosma, March 4, 1939 - May 11, 2022

Patricia was born in Chicago, Illinois, on June 4th, 1938. When she was six years old her family moved to Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where she attended a one-room schoolhouse and graduated from Rhinelander High School.

Douglas was born on March 4, 1939, in Mille Lacs County, Minnesota, where his parents ran a dairy farm. He attended Milaca High in Milaca, Minnesota, earning varsity letters in baseball and football.

After graduation from their respective high schools, Patricia and Douglas met at Northland College in Ashland, Wisconsin, in the Northland Touring Choir. They progressed from duet partners to close friends to a romantic relationship. Their paths diverged in 1958 - Doug to transfer to and graduate from St. Cloud State, Minnesota, with a BA in mathematics, and Patricia to graduate from Northland College with a BA in English and then to study at the Philadelphia Academy of Vocal Arts.

Eventually their paths converged, and on August 8, 1964, Doug and Patricia married at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Tomahawk, Wisconsin. They worked as teachers in Sheboygan, Wisconsin for the first year of their marriage, where their son Peter was born in 1965. Doug began a career with Green Giant in Le Sueur, Minnesota, where Elizabeth (1966), Mary (1968), Timothy (1970) and Sarah (1974) were born. In 1978, after Doug accepted a job offer from Clorox, the family moved to Pleasanton, California, where Doug and Pat would spend the rest of their lives.

Doug and Pat were active in Pleasanton and the wider community. As members of the Pleasanton Catholic community, they sang in the church choir, taught religious education classes, and were Eucharistic ministers to shut-ins. They performed with the Valley Choral Society and Las Positas Choir, and Pat even started her own singing telegram business, Totally Tasteless Telegramz. Pat also earned an MA in Marriage and Family Counseling from Cal State Hayward and worked as a counselor in San Leandro. Doug was honored by several civic organizations, including the Pleasanton Chamber of Commerce, the Lions Club, and Valley Care Hospital, where he served on the Board of Directors and was chairman for a year.

In 2005, Pat and Doug were involved in an auto collision which left Doug with multiple broken bones, traumatic brain injury, and total blindness. From then until his death in May 2022, he was confined to either bed or a wheelchair, with Pat coordinating his care. While caring for Doug, Pat became an active member of WINGS (Women In God’s Service), the grief ministry of St. Raymond’s Catholic Church in Dublin, California, and Toastmasters. In December 2025 Pat died peacefully after a cardiac arrest, surrounded by friends and family.

Doug and Pat are survived by their son, Peter Bosma; daughter Elizabeth (Christopher) Hardage; daughter Mary Bosma; son Timothy (Jennifer) Bosma; daughter Sarah (Jared Shucha) Bosma; and grandchildren Colin Hardage, Amanda, Hannah, and Samantha Bosma, and Malcolm and Hunter Abdul-Wajid.

Friends and family are invited to a Memorial Mass on Saturday, June 13, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, 320 E. Washington Avenue, Tomahawk, Wisconsin, the same church where Doug and Pat started their married life. The church will open at 11:00 a.m. that morning for viewing and gathering, followed by Mass at 12:00 p.m. and a reception in the church hall afterwards.