Patricia Dean Schreiber

Patricia Dean Schreiber of Herndon, Virginia died September 15, 2020 at age 65 following a long illness. She was laid to rest in Iselin, New Jersey, with her husband’s family.

Pat was born in 1955 in Saint Louis, Missouri to Jean and Walter Dean, and grew up in the nearby town of Ferguson. She and her beloved twin sister Peg joined a busy household with two older siblings, Walter Jr. and Mary, and grandmother Alice. Pat graduated from McCluer Senior High School and then took a gap year before college to live in Zurich, Switzerland as au pair to a German family, still among her treasured friends.

After graduating from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota with a degree in English magna cum laude, Pat earned a master’s degree in Special Education at Northwestern University. She moved to Princeton, New Jersey where she met David Schreiber, then a graduate student in physics. They married in 1985, and moved to Morris Plains, New Jersey where Pat became a Learning Disabilities Teaching Consultant for the Roxbury Township school district. Their two sons William and Michael were born in Morristown, New Jersey in 1987 and 1990.

In 1992 Pat, David, and their sons moved to northern Virginia, near Pat’s sister Peg and her family. She stayed at home with Will and Mike when they were little. In 1997, Pat joined the Fairfax County public schools and spent most of her career there as an Advanced Academics teacher. She retired in 2018.

Pat could talk with anybody. She was smart, kind, generous, wickedly funny, and always ready to have a good time. In her illness, she was fiercely determined to live life fully, and she remained optimistic through incredible difficulties. Pat had an extraordinary talent for love and friendship, for binding family, for listening, and for sharing her knowledge and enthusiasm with everyone around her.

Pat was predeceased by her parents Jean and Walter Dean. She is survived by her husband of thirty-five years David Schreiber, son William and his wife Stefanie LoSavio of Durham, North Carolina; son Michael of Cranston, Rhode Island; siblings Walter Dean Jr. (Lillian Dean) of Huntington Woods, Michigan, Mary Alice Dean (Alan Solomon) of Woodbridge, Connecticut, and Margaret Hillman (Thomas Hillman) of Reston, Virginia; her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Barbara and Jack Schreiber of New City, New York, David’s sisters, Janet Herbstman (David Herbstman) and Jennifer Saal, twelve nieces and nephews and five great-nieces and nephews, and more friends than there are stars in the sky.

Donations in Pat’s memory may be made to Congregation Beth Emeth in Herndon, Virginia, or to the charity of your choice.