After attending Princeton, he went to work for Dillon, Read and then moved over to F. Ederstadt and Company and later to Train and Cabot, an investment firm. Like his mother, he liked horses and was an expert horseman. And like his mother, he had difficulty handling alcoholic drink.
His last job was with Bankers Trust in London, and he had a home in Ireland where he kept his horses. He died alone there in 1983 of a massive abdominal hemorrhage caused by years of heavy drinking. He was 52.
Twelve months before, he had married a young woman from New Jersey, Katherine “Kit” Callahan, and she was pregnant with their child when he died. She gave birth to a daughter, Francesca. As a friend later noted with sadness: “Kit was a bride, a widow and a mother, all within the space of a single year.”
He is buried in Section 30 of Arlington National Cemetery, along with his father, mother and brother, Michael.
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard