Gaylord Hawkins Patterson (1866-1940)

Gaylord Patterson was born in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania on August 18, 1866. He attended Allegheny College but graduated in 1888 from Ohio Wesleyan University. He then earned his Ph.D. from Yale and other degrees from the Boston University School of Theology and Harvard. He then embarked upon a fourteen year ministry in the service of the Methodist church. In 1907, he re-entered university life, teaching history, economics, and social science at Williamette University; he also served as its dean.

Patterson arrived at Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania in 1915 as a professor of economics and sociology. He was the only man to teach economics, sociology, and political science at the College when he came, but as the size of the staff increased he was able to concentrate more on his chosen field of sociology. From 1930 to the time of his retirement in 1939, he served as professor of sociology. He also was dean of the junior class from 1928 to 1930. Ill heath and weakness as a result of asthma often hampered his work at the College; in 1931 he was forced to take a temporary leave of absence. He retired in 1940 as professor emeritus of sociology.

He was married in 1900 to Millicent Louise Webber and they had a daughter, Louise, who graduated from Dickinson in 1927. Gaylord Hawkins Patterson died at the age of 74 on June 5, 1940.