HOWARD LEWIS PATTON

1920-2017

Howard Lewis (Pat) Patton was born in the Webster Sanitarium in Olney, IL on August 19, 1920, to Howard Thomas Patton and Alma Rose Lewis Patton. Pat grew up in Flora, IL with his parents, grandmother Sallie Carden Lewis and younger sister Estella Louise. Flora life was normal, heavy on athletics and small game hunting. A county competitive scholarship got him into the University of Illinois at Champagne-Urbana. Both his grandmother and his mother died while he was in college. He met Margaret Leon Nelson when she visited a childhood friend in Champagne. He was commissioned in ROTC and went on active duty with the United States Army on June 3, 1942, at Camp Hulen, Palacios, TX. He and Margaret were married in Houston and lived in Bay City, TX , while he was at Camp Hulen. They then moved with the 202nd AAA to Camp Cooke, Lompoc, CA, and he sailed from San Francisco on November 23, 1943, to Milne Bay, New Guinea. He fought in the Philippines and was preparing for the invasion of Japan when the war ended.

He returned to Margaret and the University where he got a Master’s Degree and then joined a subsidiary of SOCAL, now Chevron, as a geologist. He worked for Chevron for 37 years in the Rockies and on the Gulf Coast. His daughter Ann was born in New Orleans and daughter Katy was born in Pensacola. He retired in Denver, and he and Margaret moved to Kerrville to be closer to their daughters in Houston.

In retirement he and Margaret traveled, especially enjoying Elder Hostels in the West. They were docents at the Cowboy Artists Museum, and he was active in the SAR and the Kerrville Genealogical Society. They then moved to Houston, where his beloved Margaret died in 2003. Since then he has been involved in the Algona, IA, Library; the Camp Algona POW Museum of the POW base camp, where Margaret was head of civilian personnel while he was overseas; the Flora Library; and the Flora Depot & Museum. To the museum he and his sister have donated many items dealing with Maj. Gen. (Brev.) Lewis Baldwin Parsons, head of all transportation, rail and water, for the Union Army, for whom his grandfather, Tom Patton, was farm manager. Pat has also donated military items to the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg.

Pat is survived by his sister Estella Patton Berger and her children, Kelly Cotton and Kathy Cotton McCoy; his daughters Ann (Tom) Patton Greene and Katy (Clyde) Patton Hays, grandchildren Clare and Thomas Greene; cousin Sally Schofield; extended family Becky and Mark Udden and daughters Jenny and Abby; and dear friend Fannie Scott Tapper and her family. He was preceded in death by an infant son. Pat was a wonderful husband, father, grandfather, brother and uncle and a treasured friend to many. Memorials may be directed to the National Museum of the Pacific War (340 E. Main St., Fredericksburg, TX 78624); Houston Hospice (1905 Holcombe Blvd., Houston, TX 77030); or Flora Depot (299 Railroad St., Flora, IL 62839).

A memorial service will be held at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 3471 Westheimer Rd., on February 20, 2017, at 11:00 a.m. with a reception to follow.