Patrick H Kofmehl

Patrick (Pat) Herman Kofmehl

March 2, 1939 – August 16th, 2026

Pat grew up on a 40 Acre farm north of Spokane, the sixth out of seven children. His father was an electrician and his mother a nurse who loved farm life. Pat always said he got his work ethic from his mother. She would say, “When you get tired on a job, rest doing another.”

Pat grew up in the Catholic faith, where a lifelong relationship with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was birthed, but never stopped developing. He was constantly on the move working two or three jobs at a time. Before the age of 20, he drove trains on the Northern Pacific Railroad, owned a local grocery store, and had a variety of jobs in between. He spent a year at a Christian Brother’s Monastery in California, before entering college, dropping out, then joining the United States Air Force, serving between 1960-1964. There didn’t seem to be a job or occupation Pat hadn’t done or didn’t know something about, including breaking horses.

He married young, worked a year for his father-in-law (a local builder) without pay, then launched out on his own. Pat spent the next 60 years designing, and building residential and commercial properties. He enjoyed hunting with his bird dogs, and larger game with his brother, Jerry, and friends. He was an expert shot and a man with endless energy.

Patrick remarried in 2001 and began a new chapter in his career and family life. Still working six days a week Pat welcomed a ready-made family. He is survived by his beloved wife and best friend of 25 years, Janell; his son Joel, his granddaughter Megan, and four step-children Paul Clifford (Sarah), Lindsey Wilsnack (CJ), Harrison Clifford (Iva), and Robert Clifford (Adriana), seven step-grandchildren with another on the way, his beloved brother Jerry, numerous nieces, nephews and extended family.

Pat used to say he wanted this passage on his mother’s headstone.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”

John 11:25,26 (NKJV)