State Rep. Pat Boy

State Representative Patricia (Pat) Boy was first elected to the Indiana House of Representatives on Nov. 6, 2018. She is the ranking Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee and also serves on the Environmental Affairs and Elections and Apportionment committees.

Her parents always stressed education and hard work - that if you can read well, you can achieve anything. Education is never wasted. Pat attended college with a state scholarship based on grades and need, working all through college to pay for books and tuition supplementation, and earning a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English.

When her husband was seriously injured in a car accident that left him a quadriplegic, Pat learned firsthand about the desperate need for safety nets like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Just trying to navigate the system was at times a nightmare. For many years afterwards, the couple would have to annually verify that he was STILL permanently disabled. His frequent hospitalizations could easily have driven them to bankruptcy if it were not for the Affordable Care Act. The process would have been an even bigger nightmare without the initial navigation help the couple received from Human Resources at his former employer.

Boy has been a union worker herself, as well as a service manager (10 years). She was also a small business owner for nearly 30 years: She and her husband operated a 24-hour secretarial/data management business in their home from 1988 until just after his death in 2016.

Boy was first elected to the Michigan City Common Council after helping local residents successfully protect a wetland, encouraged by neighbors to run. Her experience includes budget, economic development, community development, and labor negotiations. She worked on the Code Review Committee for several years to overhaul the Michigan City Municipal Code, finding and fixing errors and omissions. She was asked to run for State Rep. when she talked about self-limiting her term to 16 years and retiring from the Council.

Boy has worked with both Democrats and Republicans as a member of the Better Government Study Group, which hosts educational forums on government in LaPorte County. Pat also served on a non-profit board for many years, as its representative to the Drug-Free Partnership.

Boy is a current member and past president of both the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of LaPorte County and the Rotary Club of Michigan City, and a member of LWV Lake Michigan Region. She is a member of the LaPorte County Chapter of the NAACP. For many years she was a Junior Achievement volunteer, Cub Scout Leader, and room mother at her son’s school. She is also a graduate of both the Adult Leadership and Advanced Leadership Classes of Leadership LaPorte County.

She has one son and one grandson, and has lived in the same home in Michigan City since 1979.