F. B. Patterson Dies; NCR Chief
Frederick Beck Patterson, former president of the National Cash Register Co. and son of its founder, the late John H. Patterson, died at 9 a.m. today at Bethesada Memorial hospital, Boynton Beach, Fla. He was 78.
He had suffered a stroke May 21 at his home in Delray Beach, Fla., where he spent most of his time the last eight years. He had been unconscious since Friday.
When visiting Dayton in recent years, Mr. Patterson resided at the Sheraton-Dayton hotel.
Services will be Wednesday noon at his home in Delray Beach at 509 Palm Trail, with burial in Florida.
Mr. Patterson began his active association with NCR, which he headed from 1922 to 1936, as a foundry helper. Later he worked in the tool room, pattern shop, inventions, assembly, sales and foreign branches.
HE ATTENDED Dayton public schools and completed his formal education in Adirondack and Florida schools, also studying in England at Chatham House. He was widely traveled.
In World War I he served with the 15th Photographic section of the U. S. Air service, participating in the St. Mihiel battle in France. He was president of the National Aeronautical association in 1924.
When the government proposed to abandon old McCook field here and move its aviation engineering activities from Dayton, Mr. Patterson in 1922 headed a campaign to raise $400,000 for purchase of 5,000 acres east of the city as a permanent site. Popular subscription produced the funds in 36 hours, and the land was bought and given to the government for Wright-Patterson Air Force base.
Mr. Patterson had been [a] sportsman and rancher as well as industrialist and civic leader. He had bagged big game in Africa and Alaska and was an avid sport fisherman with various trophy awards.
After leaving Dayton, he entered the cattle business in Arizona, once owning three ranches and 3,000 head there.
Mr. Patterson was cited in 1967 by the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce for his role in the '20s in raising funds for the the land which became Wright field.
"My God. I'm speechless, " he said on receiving the honorary plaque. "There were hundreds of people working on the McCook field business. It's to them the plaque should go."
As a young man, Mr. Patterson had accompanied a scientific expedition to Greenland where he made a series of photographs of the natives.
MR. PATTERSON'S first wife was the former Evelyn Huffman, a descendant of early Dayton families. Her second marriage was to the late Robert R. Dickey, also a Dayton native. Mrs. Dickey died last July in Virginia.
Mr. Patterson was married in 1928 to the former Armenal Wood Gorman, one of the founders of the Junior League here. She died at their Delray Beach home of a heart attack in 1962 at 65.
Surviving are two daughters, Mrs. Dean Lewis of California and Mrs. William Prescott of Mexico; a stepdaughter, Mrs. Haydon Channining of Tucson; a stepson, Charles Morgan Wood Gorman of San Franciso, and a sister, Mrs. Howell (Dorothy) Jackson of Middleburg, Va., for whom Dorothy Lane is named.
The family suggests that memorial contributions may be made to the Children's Medical center here, in lieu of flowers.
