Pat Connors Retiring After 30 Years With Realtors Association

The Kent Washington Association of Realtors office, located across the street from Stanley Bostitch on South County Trail, will have a new person in the executive’s chair for the first time in 30 years this spring.

Pat Connors has decided to step down, and will leave as soon as the Association has a new executive in place.

Association President Dottie Giamette of Weichert Realtors has a search committee looking for a successor.

Connors' busy days at her job were matched by some very busy days at home.  Her twin daughters were born with a form of muscular dystrophy, which confines them to wheelchairs.  

They are adults now, with families of their own, whose pictures are proudly displayed in Connors’ office.  One daughter works for Congressman Langevin in his Rhode Island office.

When the girls were seven years old, Connors’ husband developed multiple sclerosis.  He was unable to work the last eleven years of his life, passing away four years ago.  Fortunately, he had worked for the state long enough to retire before having to quit work.

Looking back, Connors recalls that when she began there were no computers.  She kept records on index cards and used a typewriter to generate her reports, using carbon paper to create copies.

She says transactions and agreements were much simpler at that time, and you just went to your local bank for a mortgage.  Today there are more regulations as well as funding sources.

When Connors began work in 1980 she was the first paid staff member and thought she was being hired as a secretary, but soon learned she was really the Executive Officer.

The Association grew from 200 to 750 members by 1995, when Kent and Washington merged.  Today there are 1,500 members and in addition to the Association Executive there is one full time and two part time employees.

Connors is looking forward to retiring in April, but says if the search committee hasn’t found the right person by then she will stay on the job until they do.