Patricia L. Herbold

Patricia Louise Herbold (born 1940) is a chemist, former city mayor, and the former United States Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore.

Early life Herbold was born in and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. Born into a family of five children, Herbold's father left the family due to a gambling addiction and her mother raised the five children by herself. Unable to raise the five children, Herbold and her four siblings were left at St. Joseph’s Orphanage in Ohio.

Diplomatic career In 2005, Herbold was appointed Ambassador of the United States of America to the Republic of Singapore. Soon after her appointment, she presented her credentials to President S. R. Nathan in a ceremony at Istana.

On May 18, 2006, she commemorated the return of the Revere Bell to the National Museum of Singapore. She regularly did volunteer work with children in Singapore.

In 2009, Herbold vacated the position after Barack Obama was appointed as the President of the United States.

Charitable efforts Prior to being accredited to Singapore, Herbold was a member of the President's 21st Century Workforce Council, on the Board of St. Joseph Orphanage of Cincinnati, the Seattle Art Museum, and the Performing Arts Center Eastside in Bellevue, Washington.

Herbold and her husband have supported cancer research. They gave a US$1.5 million gift to the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center to establish the Herbold Computational Biology Program.

Environmental conservation Herbold has worked with Long Live the Kings, a non-profit organization dedicated to the restoration of wild salmon in the Pacific Northwest.

Awards Herbold was the first recipient of the annual Scholar of Life Award of St. Joseph Orphanage and was inducted into the Horatio Alger Association of Distinguished Americans in April, 2014.

Personal life Herbold met and married her husband, Robert J. Herbold, who was her trigonometry instructor. Together they have three children and seven grandchildren.