Robert Booth Patterson

Robert Booth (“Bob”) Patterson - Bob Patterson, age 85, passed away on Memorial Day, May 26, 2025, at his home in Louisville, Kentucky, with members of his family by his side. Bob was born August 29, 1939, to Herbert Riley Patterson and Ruby Lucille Padgett Patterson in Shenandoah, Iowa. The family moved to Villisca, Iowa, where Bob spent most of his childhood, and then to Red Oak, Iowa, where Bob graduated from Red Oak High School (Class of 1957). Bob earned his B.B.A. in Marketing from the University of Iowa in 1962, and at Iowa, he was enrolled in ROTC and was commissioned a Second Lieutenant in the Air Force. In the Air Force, Bob first trained on the Cessna T-37 twin engine jet airplane in Texas and then went into computer training. While stationed in Biloxi, Mississippi, he met his lifelong love, Martha Faye Arrington, who was teaching school in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, and they married October 1963. After a two-year assignment in Utah, Bob was assigned to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany in computer maintenance involving the radar systems in cooperation with NATO from 1965 to 1968. From there, Bob and Martha travelled on leave all over Europe. Following his honorable discharge at the rank of Captain, Bob and Martha returned to Red Oak, where they raised their two children (Andrea and Scott). Bob worked for many years at the Thomas D. Murphy Company, ultimately as Vice President of Promotional Products, and later at Spectrum Printing and then Gemaco, which took him to Olive Branch, Mississippi, where he and Martha lived from 1999 until they moved to Louisville to be closer to family three years ago. Bob was a proud Iowa Hawkeye, serving many years on the Memphis (Tennessee) Iowa Club Board of Directors. He also had a deep interest in family genealogy and history. Bob was very competitive, whether it be billiards or go-cart racing with the grandkids, and he could fix anything. He was “tech savvy” and ahead of his time and his peers. He was the adventurous and proud patriarch of the family, boldly cliff jumping with his five granddaughters well into his 70s. Bob would go out of his way to help anyone, even a stranger, with no expectation of repayment. He was particularly fond of his Class of ’57 classmates and his fraternity brothers in Phi Gamma Delta at Iowa. Bob was commissioned a Kentucky Colonel in 1987 by Governor Martha Layne Collins. Bob was raised Presbyterian. Bob is survived by his wife, Martha Patterson; his daughter, Andrea Patterson Wiggins (Kyle) of Louisville, KY; his son, Scott Patterson (Julie) of Polk City, IA; his five granddaughters: Olivia Patterson Juhl (Ben), Emily Patterson, Kathryn Wiggins, Zara Wiggins, and Anna Patterson; one great grandson, Boston Juhl; his sister in-law, Margaret Arrington Henderson of Greenwood, MS; his brother-in-law, Larry Arrington of Houston, MS; and a host of nieces and nephews. Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his aunt, Louise Padgett (Harry) Olson of Branson, MO; and his sister, Lou Ann (Erling “Zeke”) Zetterlund of Lake Elmo, MN. Bob’s family is grateful to his personal caregiver, Blessing. Arch L. Heady Funeral Home arranged for Bob’s cremation, and a small family memorial service will be held in the near future. Cremains will be interred at the West Tennessee State Veterans Cemetery in Memphis. Bob asked that memorials be made to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.