December 23, 2004


Looking back while forging ahead

Vice Mayor Pat Dando reflects on strengths and weaknesses

By Kymberli W. Brady
Staff Writer

Part one: “The early years”
Part two: “A public life” will run next week

Removing pictures from the walls while packing 10 years of victories and defeats into boxes causes one to pause and reflect—to take a good look back with one eye, while keeping the other focused on the road that lies ahead.

Pat Dando shared a close relationship with her mother, Julia Stout

For Vice Mayor Pat Dando, it’s been a fast-paced productive decade that started humbly with little efforts she championed along the way—causes that eventually took her from the brightly colored picture books that have molded children’s imaginations to land acquisitions, public safety campaigns, and redevelopment decisions that have molded a city.

In listening to her speak openly and candidly about love, life, and career, there’s no mistaking what—or who, played a major role in molding the woman, teacher, and public servant into one of the most respected elected officials in San Jose—her mother, Julia Estelle Stout.

Dando would never get to know her father, whose alcohol-induced violence drove her mother to muster up the courage to sneak away one night and leave the abusive relationship behind.

Soon afterward, Patricia was born in Vernon, Texas on June 1, 1946. She grew up in Killeen, near Fort Hood, a new army base ripe with potential for the laundry business her mother decided to start.

Two years later, tragedy struck when the Laundromat boiler exploded and they watched, as flames consumed everything in their path, including their life savings, which until that night had been safely tucked away in the coke machine.

Determined to provide a normal home for her daughter, she applied for another loan and started over. With a good head for business and a better one for saving, they soon moved into their first home on Cloud Street in 1951, where they lived for the next ten years.

Her mother wasn’t an educated woman, but Dando to this day considers her one of the smartest woman—especially in business that she has ever known.

“Most of that came from her courage,” Dando said. “She was very successful. At her death, she had a portfolio that most people would envy and started with absolutely nothing. Then she lost it all and started again. She was always a hard worker.”

At a recent dinner in her honor, Vice Mayor Dando bites back a tear during a presentation of her accomplishments, while her son Todd seizes a private opportunity to cast an adoring look her way. Photo by Kymberli Brady.

Cut from the same cloth, Dando embarked on challenges of her own and became the first in her family to attend college, graduating from North Texas State and forged ahead in her pursuit to become a teacher.

While home for the summer, she met a young lieutenant while having dinner with some friends and they instantly hit it off. After a brief courtship, Pat and Bob Dando were married 5 months later.

“We were together every night that summer,” she admitted. “I was smitten and thought he was the most wonderful man.”

After a short residency in New York, the Dando’s, with two small children moved to San Jose in 1974 and settled into a sleepy Almaden neighborhood, where they still live today.

With her daughter Lisa and son Kyle in school, and the arrival of their son Todd, Dando decided to assume a more active role in her children’s lives and dove in to school activities and PTA, while helping to spearhead the Almaden Valley Women’s Club to raise funds for the local community.

The more she got involved in the community—whether fighting for a stop sign or keeping a library open, Dando soon became a familiar face at City Hall and her involvement with the Women’s Club opened the door to the beginning of a friendship with Mayor Tom McHenry—and a major career shift for Dando.

Part Two: “A Public Life” will run next week.