Physician
Centurion, 1910–1957
Born 5 July 1874 in East Orange, New Jersey
Died 10 December 1957 in Suffern, New York
Buried Brick Church Cemetery
, Spring Valley, New York
Proposed by Samuel W. Lambert and Thomas A. Janvier
Elected 5 November 1910 at age thirty-six
Archivist’s Note: Son of Edward Patterson; brother of Arthur C. Patterson and Edward L. Patterson
Seconder of:
Century Memorial
Henry S. Patterson graduated from Williams in 1896, and from Columbia P. & S. in 1900. He was a cardiologist and general practitioner in the City for fifty years. A good part of this time he was medical director of St. Luke’s Hospital, and he always made his headquarters there. After his retirement in 1949, he was retained as a consultant to some twenty hospitals in the metropolitan area. He had the instinct of the born clinician; but his intuitive appraisal of the sufferer’s affliction was founded on an immense store of knowledge and experience, so that his colleagues were continually impressed by the wisdom of his diagnoses.
He used to go to Canada to fish in trout streams; and he was not only an expert angler, but was no less skillful in the cognate arts, such as tying flies and the difficult craft of rod-making. Perhaps it was trekking around in the north woods that turned his inclinations to painting. Every little while he would give an exhibition of water colors. His woodland scenes were first class, and regarded with no small astonishment and admiration by his fellow amateurs at the Century.
He was one of the original members of the Blue Hill Troupe, and in the 20’s sang the leading tenor part in several of their Gilbert and Sullivan productions. In truth, his quiver was full of arrows: he was endowed with talents beyond those of ordinary men, and with strength to live life to the full.
Nevertheless, all in all, the important thing about him was that he loved his fellow man and worked for him with an understanding heart.
George W. Martin
1958 Century Association Yearbook
