24 Apr 1911 – 28 Jul 2013
Husband of Thelma Winn Patterson
M.L. “Pat” Patterson Marvin Lowell (Pat) Patterson passed away in his home on July 28, 2013 at the age of 102 from acute old age. He was preceded in death by his wife of 50 years Thelma Winn Patterson in 1985 and is survived by his three children, 11 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and 9 great-great-grandchildren. In addition his family wishes to recognize the generous and caring friends he leaves behind in Trinidad. He was most fortunate to have them in his life.
Pat was born on April 24, 1911 in Long Beach, CA. After completing a sixth grade education he began his career at thirteen working as a cowboy in Arizona. At one point in his young life, he was traveling in the South and was arrested as a vagrant (though he wasn’t) and was put on a chain gang driving pilings for the Gulf Coast Highway. He escaped through the swamps (nearly losing his life) and never returned to any state that sided with the South in the Civil War.
He became a self-taught electrician and in World War II, he worked in an Italian Prisoner of War camp. Before the war ended, he moved his family to Redding, CA. In 1976 he and his wife retired to Trinidad, CA.
Pat was an avid hobbyist. He learned photography early on and was a volunteer crime scene photographer in the thirties for the Arizona police department. He was a HAM radio operator for many years. He was a pilot and a talented gunsmith. He was a skilled and responsible hunter and he deeply loved the outdoors. Pat was a voracious reader and believed education is the key to a good life.
After retiring to Trinidad, he became a commercial fisherman and served for a time as Water Commissioner for the city. Everyone who knew him will tell you that he could be cantankerous and opinionated, but he was a gentle man, a good man. He took a minimal education and turned it into a full life of skill, curiosity, family, responsibility, and achievement. His legacy is the American dream: that each of us can rise above our disadvantages and become what we are willing to work for. Donations to Hospice of Humboldt will be appreciated.
-Published in Eureka Times-Standard on July 30, 2013
Trinidad Lighthouse Lost and Buried at Sea Memorial, Trinidad, Humboldt, California
