I-House Remembers Pat Cloherty ’67, Life Trustee
Patricia M. Cloherty, an international venture capitalist and private equity financier, and a longtime member and supporter of the International House community, passed away on September 23, 2022, at her home in the Coconut Grove section of Miami, Florida, at age 80.
A native of California, Cloherty received a BA from the San Francisco College for Women and lived at I-House in 1965-67 while pursuing her graduate studies at Columbia University.
As the recipient of a Ford Foundation Fellowship in International Development, she earned both her MA degree at Teachers College and her Master of International Affairs with a specialization in Latin American Studies from Columbia.
Her prior service in Brazil for the Peace Corps in its early years was a perfect introduction for living at I-House, where Pat was a member of the President’s Advisory Council and made many lifelong friends.
After joining Patricof in 1969, she was Deputy Administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration from 1977 to 1978, and in 1991 chaired an Investment Advisory Council to revamp the SBA’s Small Business Investment Company Program. In 1981, she was the founding President of the Committee of 200, a prestigious organization of the country’s leading women entrepreneurs and corporate executives.
Cloherty went on to become Chairman and CEO of Delta Private Equity Partners, LLC, manager of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund and Delta Russia Fund, LP. She was former Co-Chairman, President and General Partner of Apax Partners, Inc. (formerly Patricof & Co. Ventures, Inc.), a multibillion-dollar private equity company.
Her extraordinary career as a venture capitalist was well underway when Cloherty was elected to the International House Board of Trustees in 1982. She would go on to serve as a longtime member and Chair of the Programs & Resident Life Committee, and as a member of the Long-Range Planning Committee (1995) and the 75th Anniversary Capital Campaign Steering Committee (2000-02).
Cloherty was instrumental in the development of the Women’s International Leadership Program at I-House, and a charter member of its Advisory Council, mentoring some of its early participants. She was a longtime member of the New York Area Alumni Council and the World Council of Alumni.
An outgoing person who connected easily with others, Cloherty greatly enjoyed interacting with I-House residents and her fellow alumni and board members. She was elected a Life Trustee in 2002 and was a recipient of the Harry Edmonds Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement, presented during a gala at the Rainbow Room in 2005.
For years, Cloherty purchased a table at I-House galas, which she would invariably populate with close alumni friends. Those years she was traveling or unable to attend, she bought a table and instructed, “Give to residents.”
On her last visit to New York City in November 2021, with her close friend Joanne Edgar ’68, Cloherty hosted three I-House residents for Thanksgiving dinner, as she had done in earlier years in Manhattan and at her country home in Garrison, NY.
In a notice published in the New York Times on October 2nd, I-House Board Chair Frank Wisner and President Sebastian Fries paid tribute to “Pat Cloherty, our beloved alumna, life trustee, friend and benefactor. A role model for many, her energy, wit, enthusiasm, support and savvy will be greatly missed.”
On October 5, the Times ran this story.