RICHARD BERNARD PATT, M.D. ,passed away comfortably at home in Houston on the 20th of January 2013 with Pauline, his loving wife of 15 years, at his bedside. He was born on the 12th of May 1954 to parents, Shirley Patt and Howard Henry Patt of Baltimore, Maryland.
Rick was preceded in death by his mother, Shirley Patt. He is survived by his devoted wife, Pauline; his step-son, Sean Hogle; father, Howard Henry Patt, all of Houston; brothers, Robert Patt-Corner and wife Melanie, and their children, Tessa and Drake, all of Cabin John, Maryland, and Stephen Patt, M.D. and wife Lisa, and their children, Ariel and Paris, all of Topanga, California.
Rick was originally recruited from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, to The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, as Deputy Chief of MD Anderson Cancer Pain and Symptom Management, and Director of The Anesthesia Pain and Fellowship Program, and Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Neuro-Oncology. He developed the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center's Anesthesiology Pain Program in 1993.
Richard Bernard Patt, M.D. was a caring compassionate man and physician. Not only did he treat patients on the physician level, but he believed in the power of music and its healing qualities. He was always ready with a song, guitar in hand or in car, and a smile, even when he became the patient and wasn't the doctor any more.
Being a part of the Houston music scene as "Dr. Rick" with fellow musicians, friends and family kept him going during his life here in Houston. As he said "there's got to be an open jam somewhere" and if there wasn't one or if he couldn't go, he'd make sure someone was always coming over to play music. He was a gifted writer, author, speaker, singer, mentor, and friend who had touched so many people in a lot of different ways. He said everyone just, "Enjoy Every Sandwich."
In accordance to his expressed wishes, no services are to be conducted.
Posted in the Houston Chronicle by Tony Freemantle, Houston Chronicle
When Richard Patt was diagnosed with end-stage lung cancer in March last year, he made a conscious decision not to fight it. He knew the odds. He was a doctor, an anesthesiologist by training, and a pioneer in the treatment of pain in terminal cancer patients. He had witnessed first-hand the value of death with dignity.
Instead of trying to buy a little more time with debilitating chemotherapy and radiation, his preferred therapy would be to play music until he couldn't any more.
Last Wednesday night, weak and slipping in and out of coherence, he took the stage at the Big Easy Social and Pleasure Club and nailed a short set; on Sunday, he died peacefully at home with his wife, Pauline, at his side. He was 58.
Patt, who served two terms as a board member for the Houston Blues Society and was the front-man for Dr. Rick's Fool's Paradise, ended his life playing music in Houston. But he began it in Baltimore growing up as the youngest of three boys in the Pill Hill neighborhood of the city.
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