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Ex-top aide to Mike Bilirakis dies in fall

Weakened by cancer treatment, Patricia Faber, 63, falls on a rocking chair's rocker that pierces her chest.

By JOSE CARDENAS
Published December 1, 2005

DUNEDIN - Patricia Faber had been a successful advertising executive, top aide to U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis and a loving wife and mother.

But at 63 years old, she still had more to offer her family and community, her husband, Chuck Faber, and son, John Bronn, said Wednesday.

She chaired the finance committee of First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin. She tutored children at Dunedin Elementary School. And as a member of a Greek women's group, she helped other women find financial help for college.

It was that energy that made it hard for Chuck Faber to accept his wife's unexpected death.

Already fragile from cancer, Patricia Faber died Tuesday evening at her Edgewater Drive condo when she fell and was impaled on a rocking chair's rocker, which pierced her chest.

Chuck Faber told Pinellas County sheriff's deputies that his wife fell on the back of the chair, causing the curved rockers to rock upright.

Bill Pellan, director of investigations at the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's Office, said the cause of death was blunt chest trauma. Her husband said she died at Mease Dunedin Hospital about 8:45 p.m. Tuesday.

"She was a brilliant administrator, a person who could look at a problem and see solutions that sometimes other people couldn't see," Faber said. "She was very kind. She was very loving. She tried to teach, help other people by example. That's why it's such a shock to lose somebody so quickly. She still had a full life ahead of her."

"I'm really sorry to hear" that she passed away, Bilirakis said Wednesday. "Pat was a nice lady. ... She is the kind of person I would not hesitate to fight any battle with."

Mrs. Faber had been receiving treatment at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa and had been losing her balance of late, her husband said.

Faber said the couple were washing dishes Tuesday night when his wife severely scraped the thin skin near her chin on the door of the dishwasher. He went into the living room to ready a place for her to sit when she followed him and collapsed on the rocking chair.

The couple met in Rockford, Ill. Faber was the news director at a television station. She worked at an advertising agency in Chicago.

They moved to Fort Myers in 1984 to be near her mother, whose husband had died.

Patricia Faber worked for U.S. Reps. Connie Mack and Skip Bafalis before she joined Bilirakis in his Clearwater field office about 15 years ago. In 1996, Mrs. Faber went to work in Bilirakis' Washington, D.C., office.

Her son said she was a fierce Republican, though Bilirakis said he did not ask potential employees their political party - only that they agree with his positions.

Through her years in Bilirakis' offices in Florida and Washington, D.C., her family said that she genuinely cared for constituents who needed help with matters such as obtaining Social Security or immigration benefits.

"She often went out of her way to help people at work," said Bronn, 35, of Clearwater.

Details of the funeral services had not been planned Wednesday, but her son and husband said it would be at First Presbyterian Church of Dunedin at 455 Scotland St.

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 11:12:48]