Carrigan, who served on the MSU Board of Trustees from 1971-79, died last Tuesday in Bay City, Mich. She was 84.

During her time at MSU, she was known as an innovator, becoming the first elected woman trustee, as well as the first woman to become chair of the board.

Having worked closely with Carrigan for about 20 years, Chegwidden said she was an enforcer, in and out of board meetings.

“She was a superb manager,” he said. “She had mastered the science of management, and she really excelled at the art of persuasion. She was articulate, forceful as far as making a point.”

The former trustee also donated thousands of dollars to MSU in the form of endowments. The first came in the form of a $1 million bequest to the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine in 1999, to establish the Pat Carrigan Endowed Chair in Feline Health, as well as the Center for Feline Health and Well-Being later on.

Outside of her work with MSU, Carrigan taught for both the Battle Creek and Willow Run public school districts, and eventually became the first woman to manage a General Motors assembly plant on her own.

Following what Chegwidden called her love of cats, Carrigan also donated hundreds of cat-related memorabilia to the MSU Museum, along with a $25,000 endowment to help preserve the collection.

“It included figurines and ceramic dishes, plates and mugs, all with images of cats,” said Lynne Swanson, the museum’s collections manager for cultural collections. “Some of them are from Europe and are finely made, and some of them are a souvenir-type thing. She was a sort of cat aficionado.”

Taking her long-lasting friendship with Jim Forger, the dean of the College of Music, into consideration, Carrigan also made an endowment to the college in the form of the Patricia M. Carrigan Woodwind Scholarship Fund.

Rebecca Surian, the College of Music’s director of development, said the fund had reached about $40,000 until days before her death, when she made another donation to bring the fund up to about $70,000. Each year, the scholarship provides one College of Music student with about $3,500.

“She had her heart in both places — she just loved her cats, no question at all about that, and she really enjoyed music,” Surian said. “She really enjoyed having the opportunity to meet (scholarship) recipients, and lived vicariously through their success.”

In the end, Surian said Carrigan was known for her charity to the university, even up until her death.

“(Her donation) demonstrates her commitment and love to the musical arts,” she said. “She decided almost with her last breath to leave even a bit more, because she felt good about the relationships she had here.”