Patricia Haensly

Patricia Haensly was born in 1928 and grew up in beautiful Wisconsin farmland. She attended Lawrence College where she played violin and earned her Bachelor of Science degree. In 1950 she moved on to Iowa State University to earn her masters degree in genetics. While in Ames, Iowa, she met and married William Haensly and had eight children over the course of 15 years. In 1970 the Haensly family moved to College Station, Texas, home of Texas A&M University. She received a PhD in Educational Psychology from TAMU in 1982 and taught courses in educational psychology, served as vice-president of AAUW and the Texas Association of Gifted and Talented, developed a program for gifted and talented preschoolers and wrote articles on nurturing creativity and giftedness for professional journals and books. In 1996 Patricia and her husband moved to Bellingham, Washington where she continued to teach at Western Washington University. After William passed away, she moved to Houston, Texas, where she now enjoys life in an active and busy retirement community and serves on a scholarship committee for rewarding student workers. She continues to write and enjoys "living it up" with other unique 70 and 80-somethings.