The Gail Patrick Charitable Trust - WomAn of Distinction

This program provides undergraduate and graduate scholarships for qualified Delta Zeta members and a Woman of Distinction honorarium for the Delta Zeta Woman of the Year, the Sorority’s highest alumna honor.

Ruth W. Patterson, Delta Zeta Foundation President, said of the gift, “Gail Patrick's bequest epitomizes the love she had for Delta Zeta, and her trustees are dedicated to ensuring that her love lives on in The Woman of Distinction Program. Sisters who weren’t even born when Gail Patrick was alive will have the opportunity to achieve and excel as she did because of her foresight and generosity.”

Gail Patrick '29 (née Margaret Fitzpatrick) was a member of the Alpha Pi Chapter at Howard College in Birmingham, Alabama (now Samford University), where she majored in business and graduated with honors. Gail won a trip to Hollywood in 1932 through a newspaper contest and was offered a movie contract. She attended her first Delta Zeta convention in 1933 while representing Paramount Pictures at the Chicago World's Fair. 

A striking brunette, she was a popular movie personality during the 1930s and 1940s, starring in films such as My Man Godfrey (1936), Stage Door (1937), and My Favorite Wife (1940) with stars such as William Powell, Katherine Hepburn, and Cary Grant. She owned and operated a successful children's clothing store, Gail Patrick's Enchanted Cottage, in Hollywood in the late 1930s and early 1940s.  During World War II, Gail went on many tours for the Red Cross and several war bond tours for Canada, for which she received a citation from the Canadian government.

In the 1950s and 1960s, she was one of the few female producers in the television industry, producing the Perry Mason television series.  In 1962, Gail was named Delta Zeta's Woman of the Year.  She was very active in charitable and civic projects in Los Angeles, and was named honorary National Chairman of the Christmas Seal campaign in 1970. She received awards as a businesswoman and television producer, and was Vice President of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences from 1960-1962. She also served as a member of the first Board of Trustees for the Delta Zeta Foundation in 1961.