Dr. Patricia Arneson, 73, of Wayne, died Saturday, Feb. 25 at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, March 4 at Our Savior Lutheran Church in Wayne. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, March 3 at the Frey Conference Suite on the Wayne State Wayne State College campus. Burial will be in Greenwood Cemetery in Wayne.
Memorials may be directed to the Arneson family for later designation.
Arrangements are with Hasemann Funeral Home of Wayne.
Patricia Marie (Ewing) Arneson was born Sept. 2, 1949 to David and Marie (Plumer) Ewing of Wayne. She passed away on Saturday, Feb. 25, 2023 at Nebraska Medicine in Omaha. Patricia (Pat) wore many hats throughout her life – wife to Marion, mother to Erin and Alex, grandma to her two grandsons Zehn and Sebastian, and a dedicated business educator.
Pat grew up in Wayne, and graduated from Wayne High School in 1967. She attended Wayne State College for one year and then transferred to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UN-L) where she met her future husband Marion. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Education (BSE) from UNL in 1971, Pat taught at Lewis Central High School near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Pat and Marion were wed on July 5, 1975 and spent the early years of their marriage living in Omaha. In 1976, she earned her real estate license and graduated with a Master of Science in Education (MSE) from UN-L in 1977.
Pat and Marion moved to Wayne in 1977, where she began her 46-year career as a business professor at Wayne State College (WSC). While teaching at WSC, she commuted to Lincoln in the evenings to attend graduate school and was awarded her Doctorate in Education (Ed.D.) from UN-L in 1989.
Pat was a dedicated teacher who believed in the transformative power of education. Nebraska educators looked to Pat as a role model who developed and then continued to groom many business, marketing and information technology teachers. Her teaching and student outreach capabilities were recognized at the regional, state, and national levels. Pat was awarded the Nebraska State Business Education Association (NSBEA) Outstanding College/University Business Educator Award in 1989, the regional Mountain Plains Business Education Association Collegiate Teacher of the Year Award in 2007, and the National Business Education Association’s (NBEA) University Business Teacher of the Year Award in 2013.
Survivors include her husband of over 47 years, Marion Arneson; daughter Erin Arneson; son Alex Arneson; grandsons Zehn and Sebastian Arneson; brother David Ewing; cousin Marian (Ron) Hartje, and many other cousins, nieces, nephews, and relatives.
She was preceded in death by her parents and sister-in-law, Donna Ewing.
