https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2021/nov/05/patsy-musto-obituary

It was with great sadness that ESB recently learnt of the passing of ESB ambassador Patsy Musto.

Here, her great friend and colleague Shelagh Snell, remembers her.

Patsy Musto  1946 – 2021

ESB has always had its fair share of ‘strong characters’ and all who knew Patsy Musto would agree that she was one of them.

Patsy and I first met at a conference in Exeter when we were both newcomers to ESB way back in the 1980s. We both ‘rose through the ranks’, as it were, to become assessors and then colleagues on what was then called ‘The Committee of Management’. Patsy served several years as a formidable Honorary Secretary and her contribution to ESB in this role was immense.

She gave up most of her work with the organisation when she took over ‘French Encounters’, a highly successful business, originally started by her mother, offering residential courses in experiencing something of the ‘French Way of Life’, to school children. This meant that she lived in Normandy, where the business was based, for many months of the year (a wonderful bonus for her many friends who were always warmly welcomed and generously entertained in her lovely house overlooking the Seine at Villequier).

Patsy was always a loyal and staunch member of ESB and the last time I saw her in May, when she came for lunch with friends, she expressed her delight on reading the recent up-beat newsletter.

She will be remembered with enormous affection as an elegant and highly intelligent colleague and friend-confident and sometimes perhaps overly outspoken (although I know that this often masked inner self-doubt and vulnerability). She will be greatly missed.

James Patrick also remembers Patsy’s tremendous contribution to ESB.

He says:

Patsy was a staunch, loyal member of the ESB family for many years and her work for the Board was invaluable at times when our future often looked a little doubtful.

She will be missed by all who knew her for her brisk and decisive style, which was much appreciated. So sorry she leaves a hole in ESB.

James Patrick