Spend a few minutes talking with Pat Cronin and you’ll realize you’re speaking to someone extraordinary. He is an accomplished actor, director, teacher and survivor.
Cronin’s acting career began singing Irish songs on The Horn and Hardart’s Children’s Hour in Philadelphia when he was only 3 years old.
This began the love affair with performing and theater that has taken him all over the United States through performances in children’s theater, Summer Stock, radio, TV and film.
Cronin has a BA from LaSalle University and an MFA from Temple University, both in his native Philadelphia.
He has appeared in movies such as Rocky V, My Blue Heaven, Splash and Rampage; and in TV shows including Hill St. Blues, L.A. Law, Home Improvement and Seinfeld.
One of the roles Cronin is proudest of took place at ETSU when he played Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.
Recently, Cronin directed You Can’t Take it with You at ETSU, and shot an independent film in Denver, Colo.
Cronin came to ETSU in the Spring of 1999 as the holder of The Basler Chair of Academic Excellence. He returned in December of that year to deliver the commencement address at the winter graduation.
He came back to East Tennessee once again in 2000 to become an associate professor of drama and the first permanent artist in residence in the history of Tennessee higher education.
His happiest moments in teaching happen when he knows he’s “making a difference in people’s lives … Getting people to see just how great they can be if they want to be.”
Above all, perhaps, Cronin is a survivor. He survived throat cancer himself, and has helped others fight the cancer battle.
“Just last year I was diagnosed with throat cancer, said Cronin.
“I am one year after surgery and radiation and am cancer free. My survival odds are 95 percent and the reason is I responded immediately to one of the seven warning signs of cancer – a sore throat that wouldn’t respond to treatment – and went immediately to a doctor.”
“My wife of 22 years died of lung cancer after a five-year battle. She had beaten Hodgkin’s disease as a teenager, but the radiation that saved her then (in 1968) was the cause of her lung cancer,” said Cronin.
“My father died of lung cancer, and his sister died of stomach cancer.”
Cronin believes that once diagnosed, people should choose to live with cancer.
“You can die with cancer or you can live with it,” he said. “The choice is yours. A positive attitude is essential. It won’t stop a fourth stage metastasis, but it will help you to live longer and have a better quality of life.
“My wife always laughed and had a positive attitude, and, as a result, had five great years during which time she watched her sons grow to young men and she shared a love with me that was a gift beyond compare. She lived more in her 51 years than most people in their ’90s. She grabbed life and shook it by the throat and made it sing for her. There is no other way. If you let cancer defeat you, it will.”
Taking charge of your treatment is another way that you can fight cancer. “From the moment of diagnosis you should take charge of your treatment, Cronin said.
“Don’t chase phony cures in strange clinics, but on the other hand don’t only choose Western medicine exclusively. Acupunc-ture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative methods also prolong life and, more importantly, add to the quality.”
Cronin asserts that cancer is a family disease. “All relatives and friends are impacted by this dreaded disease and as such [the disease] needs to be cured by a group effort,” Cronin said. “Don’t treat someone with cancer as if they are already dead.”
The American Cancer Society was an ally for Cronin during his battles with cancer.
“The American Cancer Society is the primary source of a hope for a cure. Their research is cutting edge and they were very helpful whenever I needed information,” said Cronin.
“Information and knowledge is the number one defense against the ignorance that feeds cancer.”
This year, Cronin looks forward to being a survivor runner at the American Cancer Society Relay For Life at ETSU on March 28.
This marks the first year that Relay For Life will be held on campus.
It gives members of the ETSU community the opportunity to unite and raise money and awareness for the fight against cancer.
More than 1.2 million people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with cancer this year, and 1,500 people die from cancer every day. Still, the five-year survival rate has grown to more than 60 percent.
Cronin has a message for his fellow cancer survivors: “We can do it and we should. We’re a long time dead, so let’s live every moment to the fullest and leave the rest to God.”
To get involved in the American Cancer Society Relay For Life at ETSU, contact Lacie Tullock at zlnt1@imail.etsu.edu, or call Kimberly Burrows at 926-2921.

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