2026 SPECIAL SESSION I
ENROLLED
HOUSE RESOLUTION NO. 2165
Celebrating the life of Patricia Anne Reilly.
Agreed to by the House of Delegates, June 22, 2026
WHEREAS, Patricia Anne Reilly, an accomplished Peace Corps volunteer and journalist, dedicated civic leader, and beloved member of the Middleburg community, died on June 6, 2026; and
WHEREAS, Patricia “Pat” Anne Reilly graduated from St. Cecilia High School in Englewood, New Jersey, before earning a bachelor's degree in English education at Truman State University and a master's degree in journalism at The Ohio University; and
WHEREAS, Pat Reilly served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Buchanan, Liberia, from 1972 to 1975, teaching English, and she was later a Peace Corps recruiter in New York City and on the campus of The Ohio University; and
WHEREAS, for many years, Pat Reilly remained involved with community organizations and initiatives in Liberia, including Friends of Liberia, the Liberian Education Assistance Project, and Liberia's Family Literacy Initiative, which she helped establish; she also served as chair of the board of the National Peace Corps Association; and
WHEREAS, Pat Reilly embarked upon a career in journalism in 1981 at The Middletown Times Herald-Record in New York, and she went on to work as a reporter and editor for five national newspapers over the next two decades, including The Washington Post and New York Newsday ; and
WHEREAS, later in her career, Pat Reilly served as a public affairs officer for the United States Environmental Protection Agency and as a national spokesperson for United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, where she helped launch the National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center before retiring from the United States Department of Homeland Security in 2011; and