Keynote Speaker Panel in September, 2020.
View the Lorain Historical Society’s program featuring key note panelists Dr. Pat Schuch (President, Integra Resources LLC), Dr. Melody Stewart (Justice, Ohio Supreme Court), Dr. Marla Perez-Davis (Director, NASA Glenn Research Center), and Dr. Melissa Li-Ng (Medical Director, International Operations, Cleveland Clinic). To watch this program, “Beyond the 19th Amendment,” fast-forward 53 minutes into the video below.
Audio Interview with Author Pat Schuch in July, 2016.
Listen to Dr. Vicki Kloosterhouse, author of Un-de-terred, as she interviews Dr. Pat Schuch, author of Driving in the Middle Lane, about self-confidence in women on July 13, 2016.
Summary of an Interview with Author Pat Schuch in February, 2015.
Written by Ruth Frazier, Oak Pointe Country Club Ladies Book Club, prior to the publication of Pat’s new book, Driving in the Middle Lane.
Pat Schuch grew up in a town called Willowick, on the east side of Cleveland. On Valentines Day of eighth grade, her family moved to Richmond Heights, about nine miles away. She graduated from elementary school there and then attended an all girls’ high school. She was first of six children in birth order, and the first in her family to go to college.
As a girl, Pat loved to read and enjoyed school. Her favorite subjects were math and science, especially physics. A klutz in sports, she liked music, and took accordion lessons. She also enjoyed dancing but never took lessons. Love of dancing motivated her to try out for a kick line dance group that performed at her university’s basketball games. She secured a spot on the kick line, despite her lack of formal training, which was quite unusual.
Pat remembered telling someone at her retirement party that she might like to take a stab at writing a book, but didn’t start until a year and a half later. When she began the book, the original title was “Being the First,” about working as a woman in an all-male environment. As she got to a certain point in her writing, she realized she wasn’t the first anymore. More and more women had come into the work place and, as her career leveled out, she ended up spending more time in middle management. So the title “Driving in the Middle Lane” seemed like an overall better fit for the book. Once she started writing, it took her over six years to complete.
Pat started her book project by brainstorming interesting incidents that taught her something important. She then put them in chronological order and developed a set of chapter titles that formed a rough outline. In the beginning she had 40 titles, but when she was done, there were about 70 chapters.
The hardest thing for Pat was trying to write when she wasn’t feeling inspired. She found that she would come up with all kinds of tasks to do, and she would put every other item on her to-do list ahead of writing, creating roadblocks for herself. When Pat did write, it was usually first thing in the morning. At times, she would get “in the zone” and lose all track of time—and the story would just flow.
Pat didn’t have any writing rituals, and that is part of the reason why it took her so long to finish. Writing was not something that she liked to do, so she only wrote when she felt moved to do it. She would sometimes go for six to eight months without writing at all, and then she would write every day for a week, As she finished a chapter, she gave it to her husband Jon to read and comment on, and then waited until she was inspired again. This is not a process Pat would recommend to anyone who wants to earn a living by writing.
The easiest part for her was writing about the early years because those were funny stories that she had told many times in casual conversations. When Pat got to writing about the last few years of her career, she struggled trying to figure out how to keep the readers’ interest until the very end.
Pat felt that she learned a lot about herself and the blessings in her life by writing this book. She had heard the saying “the unexamined life is not worth living” and she felt she never knew what that meant until she wrote her stories. She noted that it has been a very rewarding experience to go through her work career and realize all that she learned. Pat feels that as you move along through your life, you are often too busy living it, to take the time to reflect on what is happening.
One thing she discovered about herself when going through the writing process is that she hadn’t been good about keeping in contact with some of the people who really supported her, the people who had helped her to succeed. In the early years of her career Pat felt that she was getting promoted because her work was good. In the later years, her work was also good, but she wasn’t getting promoted. So she reflected on what the difference was, and realized that there were things going on behind the scenes early in her career. One of the regrets that she had was that she didn’t keep in touch with her early supporters to find out exactly what kind of difficulties they went through for her benefit.
As we know, throughout the book, at the end of each chapter, are lessons learned, which her daughter, Jean, urged her to call “Pearls from Pat.” When I asked her what her favorite motivational quote was, Pat responded, the scripture verse Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me,” and the Nike slogan “Just do it.” As she got into the second half of the book, and knew that she had to make this book a reality, she drew from that strength so that she could move forward.
When I asked about the design of the book cover, Pat said the cover was based on a photo taken by her husband, Jon, while she was driving in the middle lane of a freeway in what had been her last company car, a 2007 model. She had pearls hanging from the rear view mirror to signify that while you are moving forward in your life, you need to occasionally look back in order to see the pearls of wisdom you’ve gained from where you have been.
We discussed her thoughts on publishing. After talking to a former Harvard classmate who is also an author, she decided to self-publish. Although it is difficult to do, she feels that this is part of her learning experience related to writing the book.
Pat said that her main purpose in writing this book is to help others and she hopes that each reader can be enriched by at least one idea. She was surprised when she saw that some people who previewed her book were already using some of the content, referring to it in classes and lectures.
We discussed the different ways that Pat will market the book. She is not a big fan of social media, and likes living a more private life below the radar. She will focus on using CreateSpace, Amazon, her own company’s website (integraresources.org), and word of mouth for promoting her book. She is confident that those individuals who are meant to read and be helped by the book will be able to get a copy.
Pat had advice for people who are interested in writing. She would encourage people, especially those who are retired, to spend time reflecting on key moments in their lives and write them down in some way. Such writings may end up being a source of help or strength for somebody else, maybe even somebody in your family years from now.
Pat feels that you are reflecting on your life when you write, so you can view your past more objectively when you read your own stories. It helps to see that your life has more meaning than you think.
Finally, I asked her the question, what next? What else do you want to accomplish? Pat shared that that she has a future book in mind that would tell the numerous stories and what she learned about being a mom, grandma, and foster mom. However, right now “Driving in the Middle Lane” is her “job” and she is committed to getting it published and available for distribution. If it helps even one person in some way, Pat will be happy.