Bill Patterson

Bill was named for his maternal great-grandfather, Bill Johnson, who was a travelling baseball player during the early 1900’s and a journeyman carpenter throughout his life.  Grandpa Bill is best remembered for his mumbly, quiet laugh, his two shortened fingers on his left hand (due to a machine accident), and the coolest toolshed a little boy could explore, complete with a bicycle-powered sharpening stone.  Bill’s maternal great-grandma, Bertha (for real?), or Nana (the only name most people ever knew her by), was a vaudeville stage actress, a Wisconsin bar owner, and the best cook in all of Arizona, famous for her tender pork roast and scrumtious-delicious browned potatoes. 

Bertha’s daughter, Rose Morache, was Bill’s maternal grandmother, whom Bill never met.  Rose danced competitively against Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire in and around Chicago, often besting them at the local dance contests. Rose‘s career was cut short by an early pregnancy and a losing bout with polio.  She died young at the age of 32. Bill’s paternal grandfather, George Emmett Patterson, the son of Chicago’s first high-rise window cleaner, was one of Bill Patterson’s most favorite people in all the world.  He was kind to Bill, and they spent a lot of time together during Bill's last summer in Tucson.  George Emmett worked his whole life at Stewart-Warner, in Chicago.  While there, George Emmett introduced his secretary, Joan Linder, to his son, George Kenneth Patterson, a former up-and-coming golf pro and, later, a black market dealer in Germany during the Korean War.  Joan and George Kenneth fell in love, married, and moved to Tucson, where George Kenneth labored as a data processor at Hughes Aircraft.  There, they raised three closet hellions, Jeff, Robert, and Bill.

When Bill was young, his neighborhood was new, chock-full of countless empty lots.  Bill and his childhood best friend, John Peate, would roam the streets on their stingray bicycles, discovering new and bolder shortcuts through various vacant plots and dry arroyos.  Each new house construction brought new playgrounds to explore and places to play bike tag or perfect skateboard tricks – an unfinished basement, a recently plastered pool, a second story just ply-wooded.  Back alleys and storm culverts were always beckoning to be mapped.  Tree forts, bottle rockets, kite wars, and 7-11 Slurpee sports cups – all these held Bill and John Peate hypnotized and excited as they anticipated yet another day of endless adventure. 

As Bill grew, his delight in life grew with him.  John Peate, Roger Hardy, Amy Blake, Janet Hermannson, David Henson, Chop Salgado, Ed West, and Rob Olsen all showed Bill things that he adopted into his own life – faithfulness, compassion, encouragement, friendship, selflessness, and fun.

Upon graduating high school, Bill ventured to San Diego, where he attended Point Loma College, an idyllic small campus built above Sunset Cliffs.  The community at PLC [Rob Olsen (again), Esther Frampton, Curt Summers, Tommy Gasaway, Karen Day, Jana Marshburn, and so many others] helped bring Bill out of his introverted ways and set him on his path to recognize the best in others and connect with that part.  Surfing became Bill’s passion.  And, it was there upon those cliffs that the World War II pillboxes were discovered and the first seeds sown for The Rusted Lantern.

Bill returned to Arizona and received his BA in Elementary Education from Arizona State University.  Friends at ASU continued to help shape Bill into the man he always hoped to be.  Ken Sanford, Jerry Joseph, Mary Ann Sanders, Dave Burba, Scott Hardisty, Celeste Walls, and tons of others, had great impact on Bill’s life. 

Basketball became Bill’s second passion, which eventually led him to New Zealand where he taught in a rural two-room schoolhouse (grades 1-8), milked cows, and played basketball for $100 a game (and a bottle of champagne, if Wellington Teachers College won).  Philippa Fairclough and Kevin Dittmer became a lifelong friends, and the whole experience broadened Bill’s perspective of the world and his place in it.

Following college, Bill framed houses and apartment buildings in the inferno-like heat of Mesa, Arizona, working as the roof man for Waite Construction in the relentless glare of the continuous brilliant sun.  No shirt.  No hat.  No sunscreen.  And no sense, with no thought of how ignorant he truly was.  Two-liter bottles of Mountain Dew became a daily staple, along with three gallon jugs of ice water.  Four A.M. start times created 12:00 noon end times and an entire afternoon of full-court one-on-one basketball with David Bullock.  These were the days of immortality, with boundless energy and no fatigue. 

Oakland, California beckoned and, in 1984, Bill began his career as a classroom teacher.  Alethea Williams still recalls how Bill was her favorite teacher and how well he did that first year with the sixth-graders at Webster Elementary School.  Credit goes to Bill’s principal, Willie Hamilton, for standing tall and making a difference where real-life heroes were few.  Bill spent eight years teaching in the flatlands of Oakland, seeing far more during those years than any action movie could depict.  Along the way, the kids of Oakland adopted Bill and he was blessed to watch several of them grow up, as he met weekly with as many as one hundred twenty-five students to play basketball and coach softball teams and eat grease burgers at White Castle and learn how much God loved them and talk about hopes and dreams and how to effectively navigate through the many obstacles that Oakland presented.  Donald Hall, Jerome Dorsey, Antquenette McClendon, Deborah Chiles, Anissa Green, Roy Garland, Joy Little, Qiana Williams, Jimmy Butler, and all the others showed such promise, but slim hope or means to escape the restlessness and desperation that defined Oakland then. Yet, many flourished, much to their credit. (I am grateful to know that.   Some of them still keep in touch with me.) These were the best of teaching years for Bill.

And his circle of support grew.  Larry Clark, Dennis Fogg, Greg Blandin, Bruce and Jackie Moog, Curtis Davis, Ole Nordling,  and Kelly Alterman all anchored Bill, as he discovered more of who he was and how he fit into the lives of those around him.

Bill returned to San Diego, continuing his career as a teacher.  While teaching in Old Town, he began an after-school club, Writers’ Corner, in 2001, which continues to flourish even today. His daughters, Keona and Nalani, were born in 1999 and 2002, respectively.

The Patterson clan enjoyed many wonderful years in San Diego, where they hosted Memorial Day Block Parties, Winter Holiday progressive dinners, backyard concerts, pool parties ad infinitum, and many unofficial wiffleball hitting contests.  The Pattersons continue to develop into people that reflect to others kindness, gentleness, and integrity.  Keona is studying engineering at San Diego State University with the goal of one day designing roller-coasters.  She was captain of her high school water polo team and took great joy in defending the opposition’s set player.  Nalani has grown from aerial silks and competitive cheer, where she used to throw her body through space like a carefree cat always seeming to land on her feet with the greatest of ease, into a business major at SDSU, a green-thumbed garden enthusiast, and world traveler. She is a thrift shop connoisseur and a junior leader for the local NAACP.  While in high school, Nalani was invited by Google, all expenses paid, to sit on a panel at a worldwide conference up in the Silicon Valley. Both girls are funny as all get out and truly a joy to be around

And Bill?  He is beginning his 24th year hosting Writers’ Corner, once an after-school writing class, now a world-reaching YouTube webinar, where students develop their creative writing “voice” and culminate their time by reading publicly, at the Shelter Island bonfire pits on random school-night evenings throughout the year, or wherever the celebrations take place across the globe.  Bill takes great pleasure hearing the creative pieces from young writers, especially the students at De Portola Middle School and the kids from the San Carlos community.  Bill continues to surf when he can and balls weekly with the young-bloods at the basketball courts in and around where he lives.  He recently was certified in scuba. Bill can be found hiking Kwaay Paay or Squaw Peak on weekday mornings, and cycling around various lakes in and around San Diego or the countless bike paths throughout the Phoenix area. He plays tennis as often as he can with fellow author, Gordon Page.  Bill also enjoys frequent get-ups with Brian Babb, a former spoken word artist from San Diego.  Celeste Walls remains Bill's litmus test on life. 

Much love to my girls, their grandparents Evelyn and Roger, to Timmy, Wynter, Briar, and Aurelie, Robbie, Peace B Free, Shammy Dee), Gordy, Blythe, Ken and Jenny, Nate, Joe, Matt, Katie and John, J.J., Brian Holio, Bud (R.I.P.), Sunny, Larry, Bucky and Ana, Ole, Ed and Janelle, Ms. Erica Soto-Nauta, the students from San Carlos and De Portola (you are ridiculous Blue!), my brothers Robert (How high is the sky?!) and Jeff (God’s warrior!), Judy, Debbie, Janelle and Andrew and Samuel and Joshua, David and Tammy and Matthew and Brooklynn and Gracie, Bethany and Garrett, and Kristine and Steven, Romey, Darrell, and, of course, my dearest Celeste (of course!). Thank you for gently reflecting God’s love and showing me He delights in me for who I am, how I am!

Bill currently has completed the sequel to The Rusted Lantern.  Through the Glass Darkly is now available on Amazon and can be found in local bookstores. Another sequel, The Key to Room 308, will be out in the next year or so.  Two more books are planned for the series:  The Looking Glass and The Tunnel to the Sea.    A dark mystery involving the streets of Oakland, called The Stars Above, is also due to be released.

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