Patrick C. McGill, age 55, of Wayne, passed away on Monday, January 29, 2018.

Patrick was born in Hackensack and raised in Midland Park. While attending Midland Park High School, he worked part time jobs in town at the Long John Silver Restaurant and at Center Pharmacy. One of his duties at the pharmacy was using a retired U.S. postal service truck to deliver prescriptions. It was a good job for a high schooler and the boss even let Patrick keep his job after he flipped that old truck on its side.

After high school graduation with the Class of 1980, Patrick did what every honorable McGill did before him – he got a real job! Always a stickler for detail and precision, Patrick landed up working in the field of orthopedic prosthetics or, as he would say, “body parts.” His first job was with Pfizer and he stayed with them when they got bought out by Howmedica Osteonics Corp. When that company decided to move to Ireland, you would think that a guy with a name like McGill would jump at the chance to go, but Patrick chose instead to stay in the states. He joined a company as a precision machinist involved in a similar line of work called Diversitech in Riverdale. Patrick worked for Diversitech from 2001 to 2011, until his truly never-diagnosed illness forced him to stop.

In 1981 Patrick met Carol Sinclair through mutual friends at a place called Alfred’s. He impressed her on a first date with a night in the city to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall. They dated for seven years. Then one day he called Carol at work and told her he was coming to pick her up to take her out for lunch. The problem was, Carol had established somewhat of a reputation for taking breaks that were a bit too long. Her boss was on to her and Carol was concerned that a lunch out with Patrick would linger and could mean the end of her job. Patrick went behind her and called Carol’s boss to tell her that he wanted to take Carol out for lunch to propose marriage. The boss let her go and Patrick and Carol headed to The Kings Ransom Restaurant. They each ordered a glass of wine and, while Carol excused herself to use the ladies room, Patrick dropped the ring into the bottom of her wine. When she came back she noticed something in her glass. Her expression went from disgust to delight when she realized that it was an engagement ring. They exchanged their wedding promises before God, family and friends on Saturday, October 14, 1989 at Church of the Nativity in Midland Park. After a honeymoon in the Bahamas and Disney World, they started married life together in a little apartment in Haledon. In 1994, they moved to Wayne and right next to the realtors “under contract” sign on the front lawn, stood one of those big pink storks announcing and welcoming their newborn baby girl Kimberly.

Besides his family, which Patrick certainly loved the most, he really enjoyed getting away to go fishing. He loved both salt water and fresh water varieties. You could say that his car tires must have worn a rut in the road from his house to Atlantic Highlands where he would take a boat in pursuit of fluke, tuna and blues. He especially loved catching a blue – not so much for eating but more for the good fight they would give when he was able to hook one on his line. His favorite fresh-water holes included Whites Pond in Waldwick and the Ramapo Reservation. On the home front, Patrick always looked forward to his annual pig roasts. He’d roast the pig and it grew into this big event with lots of neighbors and friends coming, spread over his and two of his adjoining neighbor’s yards.

Pat’s family will always have great memories of summers down at Wildwood Crest. They’d stay in the Apollo Hotel along the beach and Pat’s daughter Kimberly looks back and smiles when she thinks about swimming as a little girl with her dad and Pop-Pop between her. She’ll also remember how Pat taught her how to ride a bike, being very thorough and not letting her lose the training wheels until she could do multiple figure eights. Patrick was a parishioner of Our Lady of Consolation Church. He started going to bring Kimberly for mass and for different events that she could be involved in at church. When Kimberly went to school at Cairn University, a Christian college intentionally set on integrating Christ and His word into all aspects of daily life, Pat would really enjoy long, deep discussions about God with her.

Pat will always be loved and cherished for being the person that God created him to be. While it’s true that he could be outspoken and never known to be one to sugar-coat things, he always chose to laugh versus cry at whatever life threw at him. He could be a little long-winded…..so much so that his family would joke that if you asked him something as simple as “what time is it”, Pat would tell you how to make a clock. His smile was his gift to everyone and he wore it all the time, even throughout the last six years that he’d been sick.

Surviving are Patrick’s beloved wife Carol, loving daughter Kimberly McGill of Wayne, dear mother Betty Ann McGill of Midland Park, two brothers: Andrew McGill of Elk Bannon, NC and Kevin McGill of Hackensack, and several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father Ronald McGill in 2009 and his brother Ronald McGill, Jr. in 2015.

In lieu of flowers, those planning an expression of sympathy in Patrick’s name are asked to consider the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105-9959 or at www.stjude.org.