Patrick H. Driscoll Endowed Scholarship

Patrick H. Driscoll was born and raised in Louisville, KY with loving parents, an older brother and a twin sister. Education was very important in his family. Pat attended Flaget High School. He was always gifted with his math and one year in particular, his teacher called him and his dad into school to verify Pat could in fact solve the math problems in his head. He and his older brother went on to attend Xavier University and were lifelong Musketeers! He graduated from Xavier in 1954 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and immediately joined Peat, Marwick and Mitchell, a national accounting firm. Pat passed the CPA exam in May of 1961 and was certified as an Ohio CPA on September 7, 1961.

Soon the position had been waiting for opened up at Taft Broadcasting Company. Taft’s humble beginnings were in a few TV and radio stations but it soon grew into a large multimedia conglomerate adding in industries such as amusement parks and production companies. He always said teh most fun was Hanna Barbara Productions, known for popular cartoons like The Flinstone’s and Scooby Doo. While there, Pat started and headed up Taft’s state and local tax department as a Vice President. Most of the company’s growth took place under his keen financial eye. He thoughrouly enjoyed learning how these companies operated and figuring out how to save them money. He was affectionately called “Ebenezer” and was told by colleagues at the IRS that they named one of their tax law changes after him because of a loophole he had discovered.

Pat retired in 1991 and spent his golden years wintering in Florida with his cherished wife of 60 years, Betty. They had four children and three grandchildren. Outside of work, Pat was always a very active Xavier alumnus. He served on the Board of Governors from 1977-1980 and participated in Xavier Alumni Sundays where alumni spent much time raising money for Xavier. Pat and Betty tried to attend all the Xavier fundraisers and galas. Long before VHS or DVD’s he even brought in Hanna Barbara cartoons for children to watch while their parents attended the annual alumni brunch which was quite a treat! His wife Betty, a University of Cincinnati alumna, even joined the Xavier Booklovers Association. Pat also volunteered his financial expertise at the ATP tennis tournament. It quickly grew to one of the world’s major grand slam tournaments and today features both men and women. He volunteered at his church both in Cincinnati and Florida, served on several church councils and his condo board. He loved meeting new people, music, news, business, finance and all sports. His favorite pastime for nearly 40 years was playing tennis with both new and old friends. Through all of this, family was always Pat’s top priority and for that reason his family honored him and all that he stood for with this important scholarship.