Executive Patricia Oelrich of Princeton dies at 70

Oelrich

Patricia “Trish” Anne Oelrich died Thursday, Aug. 22 at home surrounded by her loving family and two cats after a heroic 5-year battle with cancer. She was 70.

Trish was born on September 3, 1953, in Chicago, Illinois. She went on to study at Western Illinois University and was the first in her family to graduate college.

She began her successful career at Ernst & Young, reaching partner during her 19-year tenure. Trish blazed her own trail east to Princeton, working 14 years for GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals as a vice president.

Rather than retiring, Trish earned a master’s degree and doctorate in human organizational systems from Fielding Graduate University and ascended to the boardroom, serving in many roles at FHL Banks, USA Technologies, Inc., Pepco Holdings, Inc., and the Board of the Association of Audit Committee Members, Inc. She served as chair of the Board for the NACD New Jersey Chapter and was a member of the Women Corporate Directors Philadelphia.

Trish loved art, classical music (learning to play the piano as an adult), and traveling the world with her family and friends; but most of all she enjoyed showering her love on her great-nieces and nephews.

She is predeceased by her parents Bernard J. and Jacqueline V. (Jakus) Oelrich, and her brother Bernard M. Oelrich.

Trish is survived by her brother William A. Oelrich, sister and brother-in-law Susan M. and Jack Wheatley, Jr., nephews Jack Wheatley, III and wife Nicole, and Josh Wheatley, niece Anne and husband Mike Pyne, great nieces and nephews Jacqueline Pyne, Joslyn Pyne, Alyse Pyne, Alexis Patricia Pyne, Aaron Pyne, Jack “True” Wheatley, IV, Jadon Wheatley, and Violet Wheatley.

A Visitation will be held from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Thursday, August 29, at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah, 407 Nassau Street, Princeton. A Funeral Service will be held at 10 a.m. on Thursday, August 29 at the Lutheran Church of the Messiah. Burial will take place in All Saints Cemetery, 700 North River Road, Des Plaines, Illinois, 60016.

In lieu of flowers please donate to the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (giving.mskcc.org).

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