After 15 years running department, geography chairman stepping down
ENVISION Magazine, 2006
“Thorough, well-organized, and quick with a quip” – that’s how geography professor Peter Jacobs describes retiring colleague John Patterson.
“In fact,” Jacobs teased, “I’m convinced the department’s going to go to hell in a hand basket (without Patterson), and you can quote me.”
While Jacobs may be stretching the truth a bit when it comes to the future of UW-Whitewater’s geography and geology department, there’s no mistaking the fact that he’s going to miss his good friend.
“He’s unselfish, caring and generous,” Jacobs said. “He likes a good argument and likes to share a nice glass of wine, as well.”
After 31 years on campus, nearly 15 as the department chairman, Patterson will step down at the end of the spring semester as one of the university’s most respected geography professors.
“My wife retired last year, our health’s still good and we’d like to do some traveling,” Patterson said. “It seemed like the time was right…. I wanted to go out while this was still an avocation – not a job.”
Patterson’s colorful history started long before he became a professor at UW-Whitewater. As a young man in the late 1960s, Patterson served as a military intelligence officer in the Vietnam War during the volatile Tet Offensive. After returning from the service, he graduated in 1966 with his undergraduate degree in geography from DePaul University, then went on to receive a master’s degree at the University of Maryland and a PhD at the University of Florida – both in geography.
Patterson taught at the Pentagon in Virginia and at an Air Force base in Baltimore but has spent the majority of his career teaching geography at UW-Whitewater. Between 1982 and 1983, Patterson completed a faculty exchange at a geographic institute in Bern, Switzerland. And ever since, students have taken advantage of his world geography classes, particularly his influential urban land use planning class.
That course, which typically attracts older students already waist-deep in their geography majors, generally focuses on land use in Whitewater and surrounding communities. The group of five to 15 students acts as a consulting firm and produces planning reports that are submitted to city officials and sometimes used by local planners.
Patterson said he doesn’t plan to sit idle during retirement. He hopes to remain involved in a host of citywide issues. He currently serves on several local government committees and keeps his hands busy with downtown redevelopment and economic restructuring efforts.
Patterson said he also hopes to spend more time writing. He recently finished a book for a family reunion that featured about 65 short stories. He said he plans to continue working on the book and finish with a compilation of tales that hearkens back to the 1940s era of his childhood.
While Patterson will miss campus, he said he doesn’t plan on disappearing completely; he’ll continue to teach his European course in the fall semester. That, he said, will allow him to stay in touch with a department and colleagues he has truly enjoyed. – Amanda Kramer