Marietta College - Mariettana Yearbook (Marietta, OH)

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Merrill Reeves Patterson came to Marietta College in 1934 as an in- structor in English and as Debate Coach to a team which won the Great Lakes championship the next year and placed high in the National Tournament. His degrees are B.S. Wesleyan University, 1925g A.M. Brown University, 19305 Ph.D. Yale University, 1933. Against opposition, he established the Student Senate in 1935, and served as its chairman until a senior, now the Honorable C. William O'Neill, former Governor of Ohio and at present on the Supreme Court of the state, took over. The following year, Dr. Patterson established the Gold Key Honorary Society for Men with Professors Drumm and Egglestong later was re- sponsible for bringing to the campus the Gold Key Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa, national men's hon- orary. Dr. Patterson became an Assistant Professor and Dramatics Coach in 1936, and brought to Marietta Alpha Psi Omega, national dramatics hon- orary. At his request, its founder E. Turner Stump conducted the first initiation. Elevated to full Professor in 1938, he became Chairman of the English Department the year following with the title Hillyer Professor of English. When Marietta College was re- duced to 179 students in 1942-43, it was Dr. Patterson who emphasized the need for seeking aid from the government to secure military train- ees. He wrote the major part of the presentation, reviewed by Pentagon officials several weeks after the deadline for submitting such pro- posals, and Marietta was assigned the 25th College Training Detach- ment lAir Crewl. ln this program during 1943-44, he taught both speech and English. He served as General Chairman, inauguration of M.C. President W. A. Shimer, 1945: as Ohio Chairman, Dedication of Wood County Airport, 19463 as General Chairman, Ses- quicentennial, First Congregational Church in Marietta the same year, and was later Moderator of that historic church. Two decades ago a three-man Administrative Committee, which in- cluded Dr. Patterson, was formed to govern the College in the absence of a president. This led in 1948 to his becoming Dean of the College. He has served in this capacity and as Director of the Summer School for the past 20 years. Shortly after coming to the dean- ship, he was one of two or three persons to suggest that Marietta Col- lege have Adult Education courses, and he worked with a committee for a year and a half to develop the idea. The idea took shape, resulting in the present Evening School. He was also responsible in the early 1950's for establishing a number of binary programs with other institutions in- cluding: engineering with Case, Co- lumbia, and the University of Penn- sylvaniag forestry with Duke and the University of Michigang nursing with the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Western Reserveg and petroleum engineering with the Uni- versity of Oklahoma. Also about this time, he helped bring into being Pi Delta Epsilon, national honorary journalism fraterni- ty, and has served for many years as auctioneer to raise money for the College through this organization. Dean Patterson, moreover, estab- lished with the late Professor E. L. Kirkpatrick an Area Development Program for people up and down the Ohio Valley, and was its chairman for two years running. Professionally, he was selected ten years ago as one of eleven academic deans throughout the country by the Carnegie Foundation to set up an advisory program for new deans at the Institute for College and Uni- versity Administrators in Boston. This Institute is now patronized by incoming academic deans every- where who pay for the privilege of attending. Moreover, Dr. Patterson in 1958 was elected Chairman, Still- water Conference for Academic Deans, a national organization meet- ing annually in Oklahoma. Twice he has served as Treasurer of the national American Conference of Academic Deansg has been discus- sion leader, recorder, or guest speaker at many of their meetings from Los Angeles to New York. While Head of the English De- partment, he was secretary and later president of the College Eng- lish Association of Ohio, and helped write their constitution and bylaws. A contributor to the Dictionary of American Biography, the Dean has also had articles published in the Rhode Island Historical Collections, the Western Pennsylvania Historical Magazine, and others. At present the Dean is a member of two important accrediting bodies: The North Central Commission on Colleges and Universities, encom- passing a 19-state area, and the Membership and Inspection Com- mittee of The Ohio College Associa- tion. Marietta College is accredited by both of these agencies. Dr. Patterson founded the Greater Marietta United Appeal-Red Cross- Cancer organization, was its presi- dent for five years, and is still on its board, has been a Trustee ot the K9-21 Marietta Memorial Hospital for a quarter of a centuryg was first presi- dent of the Executives Club in Mari- etta, is past president of the Mari- etta Senior Reading Club. District Governor of Rotary ln- ternational, the Dean has served at the international level as Informa- tion Counselor, as a member of the Committee for International Service, as one of five men in the world on the Foundation Fellowships Commit- tee, and from 1959 through 1961 helped place qualified candidates on the graduate level in colleges and universities in over 100 countries for study and for bringing about better relationships among the peoples of the world. Recently, Dr. Patterson was elected President of the Martha Kinney Cooper Ohioana Library Association, operating state wide and nationally known. A Trustee since 1952, he was Treasurer for 8 years before his elevation to the Presidency. He holds an Award for Exceptional Service Against Aggressive Commu- nism, Crusade tor Freedomg was Vice Chairman of the State of Ohio and Director of College Activities for this organization. He also was granted a Good Neighbor Award by the U. S. Naval Air Training Com- mand, and was guest of the Secre- tary of the Navy on two separate occasions. Governor O'Neill appointed him a member of the Citizens Narcotics Commission of Ohio in the middle 1950's, and he has held other offices of prominence and honor. For some 30 years he has been Concertmaster of the Messiah at I Marietta College and has played the violin in the College-Civic Sym- phonette. He is a director of the Marietta Community Concert Associ- ation. Dr. Patterson is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the Midwest, Who is Who in Ohio, Who's Who in American Education, Bio- graphical Encyclopedia of the World, The Dictionary of American Scholars, Who's Who in the World, The Dic- tionary of International Biography, the Directory of the United States, Leaders in the Humanities of Ameri- ca, Presidents and Deans of Ameri- can Colleges and Universities, and he will be listed in a projected volume Ohio Lives. A well known speaker, he has been elected a member of the ln- ternational Platform Association. Nine years ago Dr. Patterson re- fused the presidency of an accred- ited, well regarded, and old univer- sity in this country, and decided to stay on at the College he loves so well.

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