William Ellis Patey

William Ellis (“Bill”) Patey was born on March 30, 1933, at Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom, to Charles and Marion Patey. His younger sister is Jenny (Smith). As a student, he attended Little Turret School in Gerrards Cross, Glenlyon Preparatory School and Oak Bay High School in Victoria, the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and the University of Oxford.

He had four significant moves in his life. The first three were from the United Kingdom to Victoria, BC with his family in 1939, from BC to Oxford in 1953 where he met his first wife, Janet Rosemary (Finch) (1933-1982), and his return to BC in 1957. Bill and Janet settled in Vancouver after Bill had been hired by what became Chevron Canada at which he worked as a product application specialist. Their son, William Simon, was born in 1963. After Janet’s death, he married Maureen (Wilson) (1934-2019) in 1985. His most significant move was to the Kingdom of God when he decided to follow Jesus, a journey which started in earnest in the 1970s: Jesus changed his life forever.

Bill was a member of First Baptist Church, attending since 1984. His principal recreation was sailing. His favourite locations were south-west BC and the islands of Greece. He was extremely creative, his creativity being most obviously expressed through cooking, words, teaching, humour, sketching, and photography. Bill enjoyed being with people and had a very high value for friendship. He was very generous with money.

Bill is survived by his son, his son’s wife, Barb, his grandson, Nick, Jenny, his niece, Megan, and his nephews, Hamish and Adam.

A memorial service will be held at Trinity Baptist Church, 1460 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver, on Saturday, September 16, at 1:00 pm. A reception will be held at the church after the service. Donations may be made to Saint Jude’s Anglican Home (online information for donations here: https://stjudes.bc.ca/donations/).