Patricia Wakeling

On April 1, 1991 Wakeling retired as Managing Editor of Applied Optics whilst continuing to serve as Contributing Editor. Wakeling maintained ties with the Washington science and policy scene as many government agencies and scientific societies are based there. In John Howard's article for Wakeling's retirement, he remarked "It is hard to believe, but even Paddy Wakeling seems to be mortal". As part of her Contributing Editor duties at Applied Optics, between 1991 and 1993 Wakeling would regularly compile the NASA Patter, a summary of interesting developments relevant for opticists compiled from NASA Tech Briefs.

in 1990 the Optical Society of America presented Wakeling with the Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award for her service to the community. During her 30-year career with OSA, she held several positions in the Executive Office.

Wakeling would subsequently receive another fund from the National Science Foundation to start up OSA's second journal Applied Optics in collaboration with editor John N. Howard. The first issue of Applied Optics was released in January 1962, having had 15 months of planning, with Wakeling as Managing Editor, then as editorial consultant. She was keen for a "splashy cover (not like Newton's old diagram of a prism found on the front of JOSA)". Howard would later remark that during this period "we were, a happy chaos of scientific family: authors, editor, feature editors, columnists, referees, reporters, reviewers, copy editors, indexer and printer; each doing his own thing rather like a symphony orchestra performing Charles Ives or Stockhausen, but under the baton and watchful eye of our musical director and materfamilias Paddy Wakeling".

In the 1960s, the OSA Board considered the activities of Applied Optics as overwhelming for the OSA Executive Office, which was seeking to expand efforts in education. To this end, Wakeling left the OSA office and incorporated as WINC (Wakeling, Inc) who were contracted to perform the editorial mechanics such as page proofing and scheduling.

Wakeling donated a painting sometime between 1960 and 1970 titled Ghost Horse made by Woody Crumbo, a Potawatomi artist, to the National Museum of the American Indian. She had inherited the painting from Mathew Kent Wilson.

In 1959 Wakeling joined the Optical Society of America to serve as the Assistant Secretary. Wakeling was recommended to Walter Baird, the then chairman of OSA, who knew of her work in the New York office of Pergamon Press, and had heard that she was not completely happy with the company. In the Reminiscences of Bruce Billings, OSA's president in 1971, Billings comments on his introduction to Wakeling in 1949, mediated by the director of the London Office of Naval Research as Wakeling was helping to produce their newsletter. Billings would then visit Wakeling regularly upon his trips to London where he learnt about Wakeling's work at Pergamon. Soon after, Wakeling, still in London, received a call from OSA Executive Secretary Mary Warga to discuss her subsequent appointment at OSA; at that time, international calls were rare.

Patricia R. Wakeling (1923–2016) was the recipient of the Optical Society of America (OSA) Stephen D. Fantone Distinguished Service Award in 1990 and Managing Editor of the scientific journal Applied Optics for three decades. Wakefield was integral in the launch of OSA's first two journals.