She Spent 60 Years Protecting Simi Valley's History. What She Left Behind Is Priceless.
(CLAIR | Simi Valley CA) – For decades, Pat Havens led visitors through Strathearn Park and told them, plainly, why the old buildings still standing there mattered. She had spent a lifetime making sure nobody in Simi Valley forgot the stories behind them, and she passed that conviction on to others whose mission is now to carry it forward.
Havens, the woman who dedicated more than six decades preserving the city's history, died July 15. She was 96.
Born Patricia Joan Hayes on April 6, 1930, in Gravette, Arkansas, she moved to Simi Valley in 1943 and joined the Methodist Church there that same year, a membership that lasted the rest of her life, her daughter Barbara said.
In 1951 she married Charles Neil Havens, who died in 2004. She is survived by her three children: Russ, who lives in San Diego; Barbara, who lives in Colorado; and Debra, who lives in England. A celebration of life is being planned at the Methodist Church in Simi Valley, with the date to be determined.
"Without (Havens), much of (Simi Valley's) history would have been lost and we might be guessing about the past," Brian Dennert, chair of the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District board of directors, told Clair.
What drew Havens into local history was a fascination with the valley's own place in California's story, and that interest is what led her to help found the Simi Valley Historical Society in 1964. She is remembered on the society's own records as one of its "Founding Mothers," alongside Ann Lindeen, May Heflin and Hildie Appleton. She went on to serve as director of the Strathearn Historical Park and Museum, and in 1981 the City of Simi Valley made it official, appointing her city historian by resolution. Havens kept gathering artifacts and historical anecdotes for the collection at Strathearn Park, and by all accounts never really stopped working.
"Part of our mission of our park district is to preserve local history and we couldn't have done it without the tireless passion and insights of Pat Havens," Dennert said. "Pat was instrumental in recording the history of Simi Valley. She started before Simi Valley was officially a city. She continued on by writing about our history including the books, Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time, Strathearn Letters – Window on the Past and On the Tapo."
Havens was a schoolteacher before she became the valley's best-known historian, and that work stayed at the center of who she was even as it took new forms over the decades, her children said.
"She was a very special person to a lot of different people," Russ said, adding that many of her former students became lasting friends. Barbara described her mother as a natural educator. "It was at the core of her life and it just took different forms," she said. Havens was also active in numerous community efforts beyond the historical society.
A documentary on YouTube captures the essence of who Havens was. In 2025, a group of California State University, Northridge students made "Patricia's Simi," a short documentary about her work as city historian and her decades with the Simi Valley Historical Society. The film's stated purpose was to build appreciation for Havens and the historical society, and to make more people aware of what the Strathearn Historical Park and Museum actually holds.
In it, Havens comes across much as the people who knew her describe her: plainspoken, warm and a little relieved, she tells the filmmakers that people finally see how much the preservation work has mattered. She talks about the old buildings the park protects, some tracing back to "Simiopolis," an early name for the settlement that became Simi Valley. "If you don't know your history, you don't know much," she says at one point, and she makes clear she thinks it matters for newcomers especially, saying it's important for people who move to Simi Valley to know what was here before them.
Alexander Dean, the CSUN student who interviews her on camera, treats Havens with an obvious respect, drawing out just how seriously she took the idea that Simi Valley's history was worth preserving. Havens, for her part, was struck by how professional the students were about the whole project.
It is a genuine, unpolished look at a woman who spent her life making sure other people's stories got told, and it is worth watching to understand what Simi Valley lost.
Watch "Patricia's Simi" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuA-2NcHvgk
Havens also cared about getting the small things right, including how her adopted hometown's name was said out loud. She preferred the original pronunciation of Simi, with the middle vowel sounding like "e" in friends or "uh" for 'SUH-mee,' because she felt it honored the area's history.
Russ Havens said his mother instilled in him and his sisters a lifetime of thirst for knowledge, active participation in community causes and conservationism.
News of Haven’s death drew tributes from across the community. Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin wrote that Simi Valley had lost one of its greatest champions. "Her passion, knowledge and commitment will continue to inspire generations to come," Irwin wrote, adding that her thoughts were with Havens' family and everyone who knew and loved her.
Todd Huber, who grew up around Havens and later opened his own museum, the Skateboarding Hall of Fame at the Town Center, remembered her as something closer to family than a mentor. He recalled her taking him and her son Russ to see the original stagecoach road through Santa Susana Pass and to an early Native American adobe and burial ground, trips he said still stick with him. He credited her with inspiring him to spend his own life preserving history, and said she supported him even when his museum's focus wasn't what she would have chosen herself. Havens raised three children of her own, Huber said, and being around her household growing up, surrounded by her constant book and history projects, was a privilege.
Havens kept teaching in a sense for the rest of her career, leading tours through Strathearn Park and telling anyone who would listen why the old buildings and the old stories mattered. In 2023, the Simi Valley Historical Society and Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District threw her a celebration honoring her years of service, drawing the kind of turnout that said as much about her as any resolution or proclamation could.
Havens wrote three books documenting the valley she loved. "Simi Valley: A Journey Through Time," published with Bill Appleton, drew on contributions from anthropologists, geologists and longtime pioneer families to put together what the Strathearn Historical Park and Museum calls the most complete history of Simi Valley ever written. "Strathearn Letters – Window on the Past" grew out of a trunk of family letters a Strathearn descendant donated to the museum, letters Havens spent years transcribing and piecing into a book. "On the Tapo" told the story of the valley's agricultural era, when orchards and ranches covered the ground that now holds subdivisions.
She will be missed by all who knew her.
