Patricia Smith, who was a speech pathologist and chairwoman of the committee on special education at the Bridgehampton School, died on Sunday at Stony Brook Southampton Hospital. The cause was pulmonary distress. She was 74.
Mrs. Smith taught at the Bridgehampton School for 30 years until her retirement in 2010. “Her life was that community while she worked there, and they responded in kind. Everybody knew her,” her husband, Kenneth Smith, said. “She loved the kids.”
He said she had been responsible for building up the school’s special education department and “getting the support that the kids needed at the district level.” She also served as a reading teacher. “The community loved her,” he said.
She had a lifelong interest in wildlife preservation and social justice.
Mrs. Smith was born in Brooklyn on March 20, 1950, to Francis Fennell and the former Aileen Spieker, and grew up in Massapequa, spending time on the South Fork in the summers. She earned a bachelor’s degree from the State University at Albany and a master’s degree from the College of Saint Rose, also in Albany.
She moved to the South Fork in the mid-1970s.
She and Mr. Smith had known each other from an early age and were friends for years before they were married on Aug. 10, 1985. They raised their son, Nicholas, in East Hampton. He survives, as do two brothers, Kevin Fennell of Connecticut and James Fennell of East Hampton.
A memorial will be held in the spring.
