Legislator’s small business start leads to desire to help others
State Rep. Patricia Boy always has been driven by a desire to help others. That calling led her from her first full-time job at a Jewel supermarket to the Indiana Statehouse, where she serves as an advocate for the Michigan City community.
Boy worked three jobs during high school. She started as a bagger at Jewel and moved to service manager (both union jobs).
“My parents always stressed education and hard work,” Boy said. “Education is never wasted.”
She earned a state scholarship to DePaul University, paid for her own books and tuition, and graduated with a bachelor of arts in English. She also owned and operated the File Clerk Corp. for almost 30 years.
Boy never set out to become a politician. She was encouraged to run for the Michigan City Common Council after helping neighbors protect a local wetland. She took the seat in 2004. Sixteen years later, just as she was thinking about retiring, State Rep. Scott Pelath stepped down.
“They talked me into running for (state representative),” she said. “I’ve never looked back.”
She was elected Nov. 6, 2018, to the Indiana House of Representatives’ ninth district, which includes parts of La Porte and Porter counties.
Boy said the best part of her job is “representing the voices of my community.” She believes in fighting for all Hoosiers, especially those overlooked by the system.
“I’ve always liked to help people, and when I can, I do,” she said.
That desire to help was shaped by personal experience. When her husband, Dennis, became paralyzed after a car accident, she was his full-time caregiver and advocate, navigating a difficult system to secure Social Security and Medicare benefits.
“We had to keep confirming his permanent disability — confirming it was ‘permanent’ — and if not for the Affordable Care Act, we would have been bankrupt,” she said.
Boy and her husband ran a 24-hour secretarial and data management company from 1988 to 2016. What started with a contract to manage calls for one steel mill unit grew to seven contracts. Through that experience, she learned computer systems, statistics, workforce development and how to connect with people — skills she brings to her legislative work and constituent services.
“I never had the nerve to talk to people I didn’t know,” she said. “But I learned. I had to.”
Though she finds the political environment challenging, especially the difficulty of getting Democratic ideas heard in a Republican supermajority, Boy continues to push for bipartisan policies that protect Hoosiers and the environment.
She also remains active locally, serving in the League of Women Voters of La Porte County (where she’s a past president), the Rotary Club of Michigan City (also past president), and the Better Government Study Group.
“I understand how complicated life can be,” she said. “That’s why I fight to make government work for the people it’s supposed to serve.”
Her son, Patrick, and grandson, Brandon, live with her in her Michigan City home, where she has lived since 1979. •
Read more stories from the current issue of Northwest Indiana Business Magazine.
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