Pat J. Unkefer died unexpectedly on Feb. 3, 2025. She had been snorkeling with her husband, Cliff, in Maui, Hawaii, when they were overcome by heavy seas.
Pat was born on May 23, 1947, in Groesbeck, Texas, to Pierce and Martha Wisdom. She grew up on the family farm where she gained an early appreciation for agriculture and the natural world. She graduated from Sam Houston State University with both a BS and MS in Chemistry. She continued her education at Texas A&M University where she earned a PhD in Biochemistry in 1978.
Pat next served as a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the University of Minnesota, where she met Clifford J. Unkefer, whom she would later marry. In 1980, she was appointed to the faculty at the University of Wisconsin in the Agronomy and Plant Physiology Department. She held a joint appointment with the US Department of Agriculture. She married Cliff in 1982.
In 1984, Pat joined the Los Alamos National Laboratory as a staff member in the Isotope and Nuclear Chemistry Division. At LANL, she worked on many projects; her greatest national impact was the development of compounds that increase plant growth and crop yield. Pat and colleagues spun off these compounds through the technology transfer group at LANL and the compounds are now used commercially in agriculture across the U.S. and Europe.
Even after she retired from the Lab in 2013, Pat continued to deepen her understanding of the compounds, to publish her findings, and to find partners in agribusiness to put her compounds to real use in actual fields. These compounds are her living and ever-growing legacy; their full economic potential continues to expand.
After her retirement, Pat suffered for more than 10 years from idiopathic chronic pain. She approached her pain like every other problem that she sought to solve, exhaustively reading the medical literature, consulting specialists, and even practicing yogic breathing techniques. Though in pain, she desired to embrace life as she always had, with tenacity and vigor. Despite the pain, she traveled in Africa, Europe, Central America and across the US with family and friends. During her travels, she discovered that snorkeling was the only activity that gave her complete freedom from pain. She died doing what she loved in a place that she cherished.
Pat is survived by her husband Cliff; her brother John (Donna) Wisdom and their sons; her cousin Ruth (Joe) Cox and their sons John (Julia) and Tim and grandson Stanley; her sisters-in-law, Evelyn Unkefer and her daughter Madeline (Chris) Wiens and granddaughter Ettie; Irene Unkefer and her children Erin (Benjamin Brand), Robert and Phyllis; Phyllis (Larry) Shance; and Virginia (Douglas Sego) Unkefer. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother-in-law R. Bruce Unkefer.
A scientist, inventor, mentor, adventurer, friend and loving wife, Pat will live on through her contributions to science and agriculture and through her intense devotion to impacting the lives of those she taught, supervised, counseled, admired or loved.