CLASS OF 1876

William Rodney Patterson was a New Englander by birth, but the whole of his active life after the completion of his education was given to the Middle West. He was born in Effingham, N. H., November 4, 1855, and he there received his early education. Later he lived in Methuen, Mass., and it was from this town that he entered Dartmouth College in the autumn of 1872, graduating in 1876.

While in college Patterson was characterized by unusual quickness of intelligence, whether in the classics, mathematics, science, or matters of business and every-day experience. He was especially interested in mechanics, and in such mechanical contrivances as it was possible to utilize and adapt in his life at Hanover. Those who knew him best during his four years at Hanover felt the wide range of his gifts and tastes and the unusual straightforwardness of his character Few men of his class had a finer sense of humor or were more happy in repartee; few if any felt more keenly the beauty of the region about Hanover or rejoiced in it with a saner or more clarified appreciation.

Nearly the whole of Patterson's life after 1876 was given to various lines of work in one business organization. He entered the employ of the Western Electric Company with headquarters' at Chicago, as paymaster, in 1877. "He kept all the shop books, including the costs, assisted the bookkeeper in his city collections, and did all the laboratory work, electrical and chemical. Later he was assigned to make a study of cable manufacture, and out of the years which he devoted to this finally developed the Patterson cable, which for many years was generally accepted in the electrical industry as the term descriptive of lead sheath cable." After the invention of ths cable he became superintendent of the shop where it was manufactured, and he also had charge of its installation. Later he was plant engineer, and as draftsman of the company he prepared plans for factories in foreign countries as well as at home. Even a brief account of his activities in these busy years is not possible here.

For seven years after his retirement, December 31, 1908, he! was consulting engineer in the firm of Patterson and Davidson, but no small part of his time during this period was spent in traveling. "Few men could surpass the record of William R. Patterson as a traveler, as a lover and appreciative observer of everything that was beautiful, important, or characteristic the world over. Traveling with a purpose was his avocation. He had a passion to see and evaluate whatever was noteworthy in scenery, folk ways, architecture, and art wherever travel could carry him. And he brought the record home with him in pictures of rare beauty and faithfulness. As a photographer he was a genius, and his collection of stereopticon slides, colored by his own deft hand, could be matched by few others in the beauty and variety of its pictures."

As a long-time resident of Chicago, Patterson joined himself to numerous organizations located or centering in that metropolis: the University Congregational church, the Union League Club, the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the Western Society of Electrical Engineers. He was quiet in manner, but his tastes were social.

Patterson was one of the most faithful and enthusiastic members of the class in their gatherings for the several reunions at Hanover and elsewhere. He had looked forward to the "fortieth" with happy anticipations. After the death of William H. Gardiner of Chicago, long secretary of the class, he assumed the duties of his unexpired term, issuing the report of 1915 and nearly completing the work on that for 1916, when increasing weakness forced him to give over the publication to a classmate. His death occurred July 19, 1916, at his home in Chicago. He is survived by his widow, by two daughters residing at home, and by a son, William H. Patterson '09, of Kirkland, Oregon.