After working the gamut from psychiatric aide to Wall Street sales trainer to Patchogue Village clerk before retiring from that position in 2020, Patti Seal understood people. And people appreciated it, family and friends said. 

There was the 2018 award for New York State Clerk of the Year, for example. But it was her day-to-day duties for her community of 12,000 that rewarded her just as much.

"It takes all kinds of people," observed Mayor Paul V. Pontieri, who knew Seal as a friend and colleague for two decades, "both with the people that come into the village hall and the people that work here." No matter what kind they were, he said, "They all cherished her because she was a hard worker and she worked with them."

During her tenure, he noted, "we probably had $750 million worth of new construction in the village. We redesigned the whole downtown. So she had a lot going on when it came to zoning, board planning, board hearings and things like that. And she had to make sure the public was aware of it all."

"She was a bright light and she taught me the meaning of kindness," said Howard Seal, her husband of nearly 37 years. "She was kind to everyone. She looked at the village’s people like they were her family. She was kind of a mom figure," he said. "It was amazing."

And her largesse was not limited to Patchogue. "Our son lives in San Diego and we went to Petco Park," home of Major League Baseball’s Padres, "and we're going into the game and some guy had a sign that said, ‘Need tickets.’ So she goes to the ticket window, buys a ticket and gives it to him. And the look on his face was great. That's the way she was."

Patti Seal died March 15 of multiple organ failure. age 68, at NYU Langone Hospital—Suffolk, in Patchogue, said Howard Seal, whom she married in 1988.

Born Patricia Marie Luisi on Dec. 28, 1956, in Bay Shore and raised in Central Islip, she was the eldest of five children of hospital maintenance worker Peter Luisi and nurse Sheila O'Brien Luisi. Graduating from St. John the Baptist High School in West Islip in 1975, she spent two years at Suffolk County Community College but did not receive a degree.

After working as an aide at the now-defunct Central Islip Psychiatric Center, she joined the financial firm Smith Barney, now Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, in Manhattan, beginning as a secretary and rising to head of sales training, her husband said. She left that position about becoming pregnant with son, Ryan.

She then became active in her PTA and later worked at the now-gone Sayville restaurant J.D. Greenery and as an aide at Barton Elementary School in Patchogue. In 2004, as a part of the Patchogue First party, she helped elect a slate that included Pontieri as mayor and herself as a village trustee. Serving for a year as a village trustee, she became village clerk in 2005. The following year she helped establish the village’s Architectural Review Board.

At a Lake Placid ceremony in 2018, Seal was awarded New York State Clerk of the Year from the New York State Town Clerks Association. She served in leadership positions of the Long Island Village Clerks and Treasurers Association, including as president of the Suffolk County chapter.

She was a chair of Patchogue’s 125th Anniversary Committee and a member of the committee Protecting the Environment in Patchogue. And she regularly served as master of ceremonies of the village’s Christmas and Fourth of July parades.

In addition to her husband and son, she is survived by brothers James, of San Antonio, Texas, and John Michael, of Pompano Beach, Florida, and sister Kim Thompsen, of Holbrook; and five nieces and nephews. Another sister, Michele, predeceased her.

Seal was cremated. A memorial will be held April 25 from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus hall in Patchogue.