A fixture of Winslow has passed. Jim Patterson arrived on the Bainbridge Island scene as a live-a-board on a restored 1930’s wooden sailboat named “Tico”. He followed his children, Amelia Patterson and Daniel Patterson to the North West from New Mexico where he had deep roots and always planned to return. For over thirty years he embedded himself in the Bainbridge Island way of life with his daily haunts of T&C, the library and the post office in Rolling Bay. He was a voracious reader and thinker, anyone who had more than a casual conversation would quickly find he was a deep thinker and well-studied student onmany subjects from beatnik poetry to architecture and especially topics concerning the American West from Native American art to urban design. You had better settle in for a long interesting story and a glass of wine of which he could enchant you with a long story about too. His interests were wide ranging including classic BMW’s he seemed to have one that would be in working order and spotlessly clean and another for spare parts.
Jim was born in Thermopolis, Wyoming on August 17, 1945 to Betty White and J. C. “Pat” Patterson near the Wind River Canyon where his mother’s family homesteaded. After his parents separated he grew up with his father in Farmington, New Mexico. He was a star football player for the Scorpions in Farmington. He got his Bachelor’s degree at the University of New Mexico. He also attended the Anthropology Film School where he met Carol Sink and they soon married and had two children.
In his last years he returned to the Southwest where he was able to reconnect with the region, friends and family.
Many people, strangers and friends, have shown up for Jim in hard times or even just for a conversation. As his daughter, I have heard many stories of simply a lunch or dinner for my dad and long extravagant gestures of generosity afforded him. I hope they feel enriched by his company and thoughtfulness and their small and big efforts have truly made a positive difference in his life all the way to the end.
