Roll Call Tribute

Patricia "Pat" (Pritchett) Voelz, LTC USA (Ret) 

November 4, 1947 - June 23, 2023 

LTC (Ret) Patricia (Pat) Pritchett Voelz, 75, of Montgomery, TX died on June 23, 2023 in Montgomery. Born in Bellville, TX, on 4 November 1947, and reared in Bryan, TX, Pat attended Sam Houston State in Huntsville, TX, for one semester while waiting for Texas A&M University in College Station, TX, to fully open to women students. When that happened, she transferred to A&M, which she had always wanted to attend. Her final undergraduate school, however, was the University of Kansas, in Lawrence, KS, where she graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism, followed by a Master’s Degree from Webster University. Her military education included Command and General Staff College. Although she never worked for a newspaper, she remained a "news junkie" her entire life, subscribing to two, and often three daily papers and tracking down newsstands for the English language papers and the International Herald Tribune when traveling abroad.

Before the service academies and the Reserve Officer Training Program opened to women, direct commissioning of college graduates was the source of roughly half the Army's new female lieutenants, and that was how Pat began her Army career. Pat received a direct commission as a 2LT into the Army in 1973 and served 20 years as a Regular Army officer in the Adjutant General's Corps, with overseas tours in Seoul, Republic of Korea, and Heidelberg, Germany. Her stateside assignments included Ft Jackson, SC, Ft Sheridan, IL, and seven years in the National Capital Region. She retired from the Secretary of the Army's Inspector General Agency in the Pentagon. It was at Ft Sheridan in 1982 where she met and married the love of her life, a fellow soldier, (then LTC, later promoted to COL) James (Jim) Howard Voelz.

She often said that a big reason their 38-year marriage worked was because they both understood the duties and life of a soldier. The other reason, she and Jim's sisters-in-law were convinced, was because her in-laws, the late Howard and Anne Voelz, of Milwaukee, WI, reared their sons to be simply wonderful husbands.

Pat and her beloved Jim loved to travel, and before his death in 2020 had visited about 30 countries, all 50 states, about 130 of the National Park Service sites and most of the presidential libraries. Gardening was a lifelong recreation, but she always said it was much easier the 12 years she spent in northern Virginia than the recent years in Texas's hot climate. She also read, mostly non-fiction, concentrating on military history and biographies, baked tempting desserts, giving most of them away, and played bridge. Pat worked as an election poll worker for many years, believing that was another way to continue serving.

Preceded in death by her parents, Jimmie Carl and Inez Helen Pritchett, Pat is survived by stepsons Timothy J. (Shawn) Voelz, Woodbridge, VA, and Steven C. Voelz, Lake Ridge, VA, step granddaughters Emily Voelz, Export, PA, and Deanna Talton, and step great grandsons Rory, Logan and Gabriel Talton and Owen Wenderoth, all of Fredericksburg, VA. She is further survived by her brothers James C. (Melanie) Pritchett, Austin, TX, W. C. Pritchett, Bryan, TX, and sister Betty Pritchett, Houston. Her first marriage ended in divorce in 1977. 

Following cremation, burial with full military honors will be in Arlington National Cemetery, where she will join Jim in the same gravesite. For those wishing to make any memorial gifts, her wish was for them to be given to Tree of Life Lutheran Church, Conroe, TX or the Women in Military Service to America (WIMSA) Memorial in Arlington, Virginia.