This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Patterson, Booth, Robinson Classification: Obituary Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/hd.2ADI/1643 Message Board Post: Deseret Morning News, 03/23/06 Loyal Edward "Pat" Patterson, 98, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather, passed away on March 19, 2006, in Salt Lake City. Pat was born June 29, 1907, in Preston, Idaho to Edward McGregor Patterson and Sarah Ann Broadbent (Booth) Patterson. Pat was the fifth child in a family of 12 children. All have preceded Pat in death. Pat married his sweetheart, Bernice Robinson, on June 20, 1930, in Salt Lake City. They met while attending the University of Utah and were married for 64 years. They have one daughter, Beverly, who has taken loving care of Pat over the past five years. During his long life Pat was a farmer, carpenter, mason, auto mechanic, bookkeeper, salesman, refrigeration mechanic, and businessman. During World War II, Pat worked for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. During his lifetime he built several homes, doing the labor himself. There wasn't anything, it seemed, that Pat could not do. He was often found helping out neighbors or anyone in need. He loved to fish and hunt with Bernice his hunting partner. In days past Pat and Bernice traveled to the Salmon River, the "River of No Return," in search of steelhead salmon. He loved to race his boats (which he built himself) around Bear Lake and take his family water-skiing. Pat never bought new cars or trucks but always bought new, but wrecked vehicles for a very low price, which he then rebuilt like new, often fabricating the necessary parts himself. Pat had "nine lives" and several times pulled himself out of situations that would have surely killed other men. Once on a rain-slicked highway running next to Bear Lake he slipped off the road. His truck flipped over landing upside down in the lake. The truck sank immediately. Without fanfare Pat hauled himself out through a smashed window, climbing out of the cab as water rushed in. He swam to shore and asked a passing motorist for a ride home. At the time of this event Pat was 74 years old. Even into his 90s, Pat could be found cutting, hauling, splitting and stacking his own firewood. Even an occasional Eastern tourist who slipped his car off the Bear Lake highway into a ditch marveled at this man appearing from nowhere with his trusty tractor to pull the struggling tourist free of the ditch and get him on his way. Pat is a wonderful example of a time when Americans were independent and self-reliant, feet on the ground and head held tall and proud. We will try to remembe! r the legacy of service, hard work, and self-reliance he and his generation have left us. We will miss you, Pat. Pat is survived by his daughter, Beverly Patterson, his granddaughters Pamela (Shewell) Park, Robin (Shewell) Robison, and Paula (Shewell) Ludwig, as well as 14 great-grandchildren, and three great-great-grandchildren. A family grave-side service will be held at Fish Haven Cemetery where Pat will be laid to rest next to his beloved wife on a beautiful grassy hill overlooking Bear Lake. Published in the Deseret News on 3/23/2006.