In Memory Boys and the Commonwealth Club and was a member of the State Board of Education. He also was active in the Republican Party. Patterson was an ardent supporter of his alma matter, once saying that by Scott E. Belliveau ’83 VMI “has meant everything to me.” In 2001, the late Senator Elmon T. Director of Communications, VMI Foundation Gray ’46 said of Patterson’s devotion to VMI, “Bob Patterson has a depth of feeling about VMI – what its mission has been On July 12, 2012, New Market Medal recipient and should be – and a degree of loyalty to VMI, his and a leading figure in Virginia’s legal community, Brother Rats and his other VMI friends that very few Robert H. Patterson Jr. ’49C, died in Richmond, people can match.” It is not a surprise, therefore, that Virginia. He was 85. Patterson compiled a commendable record of service Patterson grew up in Richmond’s Church Hill to it. He served as president of The VMI Alumni Asneighborhood and matriculated from there in 1944. sociation, Inc., from 1963-66 and was a member of In his senior year at John Marshall High School, he the VMI Board of Visitors from 1968-77, serving at was the first captain of that school’s renowned corps its president in 1976 and 1977 –during which time he of cadets. He left the Institute in 1945 and served was an ex-officio member of the VMI Foundation’s in the U.S. Navy from 1945-46. At the end of his Board of Trustees. naval service, he was offered an appointment to the He is perhaps best known for his role as VMI’s chief U.S. Naval Academy but turned it down in order counsel during the six-year legal battle concerning to return to VMI. VMI’s status as a single-sex institution that took place As a cadet before and after the war, Patterson in the 1990s. Although Patterson and his team were participated in many activities. He played football successful in U.S. District Court and in the 4th U.S. and polo, ran track and was a staff member of The Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Supreme Court Cadet. He also was a member of the Honor Court, decided in the favor of the U.S. Justice Department. Patterson ’49C the Officer of the Guard Association, the InternaOf Patterson’s leadership during the court case, VMI’s tional Relations Club and the Lectern Club. An superintendent at the time, Josiah Bunting III ’63, said, indication of the often topsy-turvy nature of VMI “Bob Patterson gave everything he had, because he immediately after World War II can be found in the fact that Patterson believed in VMI. He conducted himself like an honorable man, in accord served as vice president of the class of 1948A and as historian of the with the highest standards of the Institute.” class of 1949C, although not concurrently. In 1983, the VMI Foundation awarded Patterson its Distinguished After he graduated with a bachelor of arts degree in history, Patterson Service Award. Nine years later, the VMI Board of Visitors recognized attended the University of Virginia’s School of Law. There, he made the his devotion to the Institute by awarding him the Institute’s highest honor, Law Review, was elected president of his class and graduated in 1952. the New Market Medal. The accompanying citation praised him for his In July 1952, he joined the Richmond, Virginia, law firm, McGuire, “national leadership in the profession of law and in his community and Eggleston, Bocock & Woods, as its ninth lawyer and third associate, among VMI men; for his devotion to country, the commonwealth of Virworking from a desk in the firm’s law library. He would spend his ginia and to Virginia Military Institute; for his sense of honor, fair play and entire legal career of almost 50 years with the firm – now known as justice to all with whom he has been associated; and for his outstanding McGuireWoods LLP. performance of duty to his fellow citizens as a distinguished attorney.” Patterson was renowned as a formidable courtroom advocate and After his retirement, Patterson involved himself in charitable activities tough negotiator and played prominent roles in many high profile and continued his avid pursuit of hunting and fishing. cases, including a 1970s case about anticompetitive practices, for He is survived by his wife, Anne Marie Whittemore, a McGuireWoods which the $45 million settlement was then the largest such settle- partner who was involved in the VMI defense. He also is survived by his ment in U.S. history. He also is credited with transforming his firm son, Robert H. Patterson III; two daughters, India Gregory and Margaret McGuireWoods LLP from a small regional firm to a nationally Mansfield; a stepson, Robert P. Whittemore; seven grandchildren; and recognized firm with offices in eight states, the District of Columbia a step-grandchild. He was predeceased by his wife of nearly 50 years, and three foreign countries, employing more than 900 attorneys. He Luise Wyatt Patterson. served as the firm’s chairman from 1979-89, and he retired from Patterson is being honored at VMI through the Robert H. Patterson Jr. the firm and law on Dec. 31, 1999. He received many professional ’49C Scholarship. To date, the VMI Foundation has received an extraordihonors, including his election as president of the Bar Association nary number of gifts to this scholarship’s endowment, a sure indication of of the City of Richmond and the Virginia State Bar, as well being the high esteem in which he was – and is – held by his colleagues, fellow named a fellow of the American Bar Association and the American alumni and friends throughout Virginia and the country. College of Trial Lawyers. Active in civic affairs, he served as president of the Virginia Home for
Robert H. Patterson Jr. ’49C
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VMI ALUMNI REVIEW