Patricia (Pat) Bushway

HBAC Vice Chair, Representing the Town of Hampton

Pat moved with her family to Hampton Beach in 1969 when her parents bought and operated a business on A Street.  It was a family business and she worked alongside her siblings and parents tending bowling lanes, renting bicycles, and maintaining summer rental apartments.  As a result of this experience, she gained a real appreciation for what it means to live and work at Hampton Beach.  Pat retains that attachment to the beach and continues to enjoy all that it has to offer year-round.

Pat graduated from Winnacunnet High School in 1974, completed a three-year enlistment in the Army from 1975 to 1978, and graduated from the University of New Hampshire in 1981.  Upon graduation from UNH and completion of the Army ROTC program, she returned to the Army as a second lieutenant and spent eighteen years as a tactical military intelligence officer, including living several years in Germany and Korea.  During that time, she completed two master’s degrees, one in Education Leadership and one in National Security Studies.  She retired as a lieutenant colonel in 1999.

Following her career in the Army, Pat continued at the Department of Defense as a civil servant, first on the Army staff as a program analyst and then in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment, with a focus on overseas bases.  She retired from the civil service in 2013.

Upon retirement, Pat returned home to Hampton, and has been actively involved in several community endeavors.  As a volunteer with a hospice organization, Pat focuses on supporting veterans and is active in American Legion Post 35 in Hampton.  In pursuit of her lifelong love of animals, Pat served on the Board of Directors at the New Hampshire Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals from 2015 to 2018.  In 2018 Pat was elected to represent Hampton in the NH House of Representatives.  Serving on the Resources and Recreation Committee, she developed a solid understanding of the NH State Park system and had the opportunity to look in depth at the functioning of Hampton Beach State Park.  She currently serves as vice president of the Board of Trustees of the Hampton Historical Society and also represents Hampton on the Long-Term Seacoast Drinking Water Commission, established by the state in 2019.   Pat recently served as one of the HBAC representatives on the Master Plan Steering Committee in the writing of the newly updated master plan, “Our Town, Our Future.”