J. Patrick McLaughlin's Obituary
Despite his track record of overcoming the odds, J. Patrick McLaughlin passed peacefully in Dallas, TX on July 14th, 2023 at the age of 69.
Pat was born to Elizabeth Gilbert Hitchcock McLaughlin and Lt. Col. William S. McLaughlin Sr. USMC (Ret.) in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina on October 4th, 1953.
After his father retired from the Marines, his family settled down on a 200-year-old farm in upstate New York. Pat enjoyed time outdoors riding his Appolusa horse, and time indoors with his family in the warmth of a large stone fireplace, and regretted that fireplaces nowadays could never compare. He later attended Deerfield Academy in Massachusetts, which he described as one of the most beautiful places he’d ever seen. He graduated Cum Laude while being an active member of the football, track, cross country, and chess teams - interests which he would go on to share with his sons.
Pat went on to attend Princeton University, where he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Civil Engineering in 1976. Upon graduation, he accepted a job in Saudi Arabia working construction engineering and braved a few instances of drivers running each other off the road for fun. After two years overseas, his first stop back in the United States was North Carolina, where he oversaw housing development projects in three states as an Assistant Vice President of Land Development. While there, he met the mother of his three children, Jennifer, who he was married to for 33 years.
Known to be always seeking an intellectual challenge, Pat pursued a law degree at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Law. In 1985, he graduated Cum Laude and earned his admission to the Texas BAR Association, where he moved afterward and began a decade of experience at various firms. Wanting more time with his children, he left the busy firms and opened a private practice in 1995. He was praised as a dedicated attorney who truly put himself in the shoes of his clients, providing free consultations to all in need and redirecting those who were best served elsewhere.
Apart from his professional accolades, Pat was a life-long artist talented in a variety of mediums, from paintings and sketches dating back to his teenage years through woodworking, welding, masonry, and beyond. His proudest work is a bronze-cast sculpture of a Samurai which showed in a Dallas gallery that had sold one of his smaller pieces. His long-standing interest in Japanese culture was a testament to his deep pride in his father, who brought Pat mementos from his time in Japan after serving there during World War II. Pat had been learning Japanese for years, on top of Spanish and French, and would practice with his new daughter-in-law and with friends at local language meetups. His language skills reflect how well-traveled he was, having been to many countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, and all across North America - often road-tripping with his family to the tunes of Paul Simon.
Pat had a truly stubborn optimism in his ability to figure out how to do most anything, and throughout his life justified it through his repeated successes. Perhaps the greatest tribute to this is a project he started in 2003, the conversion of a commercial warehouse building into a collection of office suites named Pittsburg Gardens in downtown Dallas. That office was a cornerstone of Pat’s time with his children, as they all worked together to completely renovate the space, including the construction of a large Koi pond and a Japanese-style tea house gazebo. Pat learned many new trades throughout the process and shared those lessons with his children.
Pat was preceded in death by his parents, brother William McLaughlin, Jr., and sister Polly Henke. He is survived by his sons Ian McLaughlin, Brendan McLaughlin, and his wife, Serina, and Aidan McLaughlin, all of Dallas; and sister, Meridith MacKinzie-Lamb of Cherry Valley, MA. Pat is also survived by his beloved dog, Chunk, who will remain in the care of his family. His family is so grateful they were able to spend time together at Brendan and Serina’s wedding in Hawaii, where the full family was memorialized by a beautiful celebration together.
There will be a service honoring his life at 10:00 a.m. on August 12, 2023, at Our Lady of Dallas, Cistercian Abbey in Irving. Pat was always a lover of knowledge, and thus in lieu of flowers his family requests that donations be made in his honor to any of the educational institutions that he felt transformed his life: Deerfield Academy, Princeton University, and Cistercian Preparatory School of Irving, Texas.
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