Trina Wagner Pate

I went to Holy Names College in Oakland for 2 years, then transferred to Mount St. Mary’s College in Brentwood, graduating with a BS in Nursing. I worked at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica for 3 years. In 1971, my brother Frank was stationed (U.S. Army) in Northern Italy in the Dolomites with his wife & newborn son. I visited them in late ’71, and they convinced me to move in with them. Thinking this was too good to be true, I returned to CA, quit my job, and moved to Italy in early 1972. We lived in the quaint village of Bressanone about 40 kilometers south of Innsbruck. I took advantage of the situation and did some traveling on my own, visiting Holland, Denmark, Austria, and Greece. In mid 1972, my Dad visited; he and I traveled by car through Italy, France, and Ireland. After returning home, I decided to go into Public Health. I started working for the County of Los Angeles as a Public Health Nurse in North Hollywood and Pacoima Health Centers. After transferring to West Health Center in Santa Monica to be closer to home, I met Bud Pate, the love of my life. He was working as a Health Inspector for the County at the time. Romance in the Health Dept – who would have suspected?? We have been married for 37 years, and still going strong. I worked for the County for 31 years, specializing in Communicable Disease Control for much of my career. My last job was managing Salmonella surveillance for Los Angeles County, sometimes working with the FDA & CDC on outbreaks of infectious diseases. I retired in 2003.

Bud continues to work, as he enjoys it. He was in charge of “Health Facilities”, the section of the Health Department that inspects hospitals for Licensing and Accreditation. He was then recruited by Kaiser to do a similar job for them. Finally in 2004, he was recruited by a private company in the Boston area that provides consulting services to hospitals all over the U.S. Luckily, we did not have to move to Boston. We were fortunate to buy a house in Pacific Palisades shortly after we were married. We are still there, with no plans to move. We do not have children, but are aunt & uncle to several nephews and nieces, the children of my brothers, Mike & Frank Wagner, St Monica’s Class of 1965. We now have grand-nephews & grand-nieces as well. Our only “babies” are our 3 cats!

Since I retired, we have been lucky enough to travel extensively. We have been to the South Pacific, visiting Tahiti (Society Islands), Cook Islands, Marquesas Islands, Tonga, Fiji, and New Zealand. In 2007, we started taking Lindblad/National Geographic expeditions specializing in photography. We really enjoy the nature focus of these trips, and the small size of Lindblad’s ships (60 to 149 passengers). It is really fun to travel with people who share your interests. With Nat/Geo, we have visited Galapagos, Baja (nothing in the world like having huge gray whales push their babies for you to pet while you are in a zodiac!), Alaska, Antarctica (including Falkland Islands & South Georgia Island), the upper Amazon in Peru, and Norway and Arctic Svalbard. In 2013, we traveled to Africa (South Africa, Zimbabwe, & Botswana) with 2 other couples and 2 guides. The Safari camps were amazing - a dream come true for me, as my favorite thing to photograph is wildlife! We are both blessed with good health, and hope to continue our adventures together for many years to come.