Pat Whiting

Whiting is survived by her husband, Vince, as well as seven siblings, Connie Melanson, Elyse Cotant, George, Mason, Masao Jim and Morton Uyeda, and Leon Castillo. On April 3, 2015, the Oregon House of Representatives passed a resolution that recorded Whiting as a "devoted and inspirational community leader, legislator, wife and sister. Dress for Success of Oregon named their career center after Whiting in 2013.

The legislation passed in 1975 and after the Oregon ban went into effect in 1977, 13 other states and Congress introduced similar proposals. The New York Times said that, "Oregon is an innovator in such environmental legislation.

First elected to the Oregon House of Representatives as a Democrat in 1973, Whiting served three terms as representative. Whiting was the only member from Metzger and the first Democratic woman from Washington County, Oregon to serve as well as the only Asian American elected to the House. A year before her election, Whiting gave the keynote speech for the 37th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Mexico City, Mexico. Whiting was a member of the Interim Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Energy, the Land Conservation and Development Commission and civilian representative to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee in Washington County.

Whiting was a co-sponsor of the Oregon Bottle Bill, an effort intended to curb litter and pollution that first passed in 1971.

Whiting served as Carl Duncan's student assistant. Duncan hired Whiting to work as a student secretary in the Field Studies Department office from 1964-66. The two developed an admirable mentor-student relationship and Whiting became Duncan's "Goddaughter". Duncan financial supported Whiting and her family, including Duncan's estate funding the college educations of Whiting's siblings and leaving his Menlo Park home to her in his will.

Whiting was born Patricia D. Carpio to Doris Runolfson in Chicago, Illinois. Whiting was of Filipino, Icelandic and Native American descent. Whiting was the eldest child of eight children, born into a migrant farmworker family. Her mother, Doris, used a wheelchair due to her multiple sclerosis and depended on Whiting for assistance in raising her sisters and brothers. When Whiting was 10, she and her mother moved to Gilroy, California, where Whiting graduated from high school in 1959.

Pat Whiting (born Patricia D. Carpio, October 22, 1940 – June 23, 2010) was an American activist and politician from Oregon. Whiting served three terms in the Oregon House of Representatives, where she was the first Filipino and Asian American representative and the first woman representative from her district. Whiting served from 1973 through 1981.

In the House of Representatives, Whiting was a member of the Oregon Women's Political Caucus, which worked to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. Betty Roberts, who served with Whiting, and Gail Wells wrote, "We were a diverse group of Republicans and Democrats ranging in age from thirty to seventy-five, lawyers and housewives, office workers, social workers and union workers, most married but some not, with children from pre-school age to grown and out on their own. The convergence of these women in my committee room was no accident. Every one of us had spirit and a common purpose." The state was the 25th in the country to ratify the ERA.