Patricia Dalton, a clinical instructor for middle school grades in curriculum, instruction and counselor education, died Sunday morning after a battle with breast cancer. Dalton was 58.

Robert Dalton, Patricia’s husband, said she enjoyed her job as a teacher.

“She loved what she was doing there in training the next generation of teachers,” Dalton said. “She taught for a lot of years in different situations, but this was the calling toward the end of her career — to work with teachers, and she really loved it.”

Faculty and students in the department of curriculum remembered Dalton as a caring professor and coworker.

“She wrote me more than one time, e-mail, to encourage me about my work and my service in education,” Raymond Ting, associate department head, said. “She’s very thoughtful. I miss her.”

Kristin Forrest, a senior in Spanish language and literature, said she had Dalton for introduction to teaching humanities and social sciences.

“She’s phenomenal,” Forrest said. “She’s the kind of professor that you learn a lot about life from her, it’s not like ‘open a book, learn how to teach.'”

Forrest said she was a teaching assistant for Dalton after taking her class.

“She put life in perspective for you,” she said. “Like one of the things she always told us is that life happens and some days you’re going to have bad days and there’s nothing you can do about it, but you move on and you do what you have to do.”

People that knew Dalton said she believed the core of all good teaching is establishing relationships with students.

“She was just the same in and outside of class. She really cares about people and does whatever she can do when you need her,” Forrest said. “She really cared about her students; teaching was the most important thing in her life. It was who she was.”

Melissa Lowder, a junior in middle grades education, agreed that Dalton was not just a teacher in the classroom.

“Pat was more than a professor; she was a friend and mentor to her students,” Lowder, who took a class with Dalton in fall 2005, said. “She was always there to offer kind words of encouragement and a shoulder to lean on when things were rough.”

Candy Beal, associate professor in curriculum, instruction and counselor education, said Dalton was grateful for the cards and gifts sent to her.

“Pat’s request was that she not be left alone. Robert did the all night until the crack of dawn shift and was relieved in the morning by Betty, Pat’s mom, who stayed throughout the day,” Beal said in an e-mail. “I was there for the day on Friday, and Pat was still giving the thumbs up sign for the new treatments that were being considered. Hope was never given up. Her family believed that having beaten cancer twice before she would make it again this time.”

Lowder said Dalton always saw the best in people and ensured no one was left out. She also said Dalton believed everyone should have an equal opportunity, no matter who they were or where they came from.

“Pat will forever live on in the hearts and minds of all that knew her,” Lowder said. “I will never forget the things that she taught me. I hope that I can be the educator that she was.”

Dalton received her bachelor’s degree in English from Wake Forest University and also held a Master’s of Divinity degree. She taught in North and South Carolina public schools for 14 years and served as head of the Carolina Friends Middle School in Durham for 17 years.

Beal said students will feel the loss as much as Dalton’s friends and family do.

“She leaves behind a wonderful son, a dear mother, whom any of us would love to have in our lives, and a loving husband, who supported her, provided her her roots and now must enable her to spread her wings,” Beal said in an e-mail. “It is a sad time for us all. Onward we must go.”

Beal added Dalton “opted for a rousing send-off party rather than a service.” Details have not been confirmed.