Dick Patterson, who sadly has died at age of 93 after a long illness, left a legacy which has had an enduring effect on the general public and our community.
After 17 years as County Architect for Dorset County Council, he and his wife Ros took over the reins the Dorset ME Support Group – one of only a handful of local groups which blazed a trail by setting up ME/CFS clinics at around the time of the 2001 Report of the Independent Working Group into ME/CFS, published by the Chief Medical Officer, which called for them.
Dick became chairman of the Dorset group, with Ros at his side as secretary. Together they helped to establish an ME/CFS clinic at Wareham Hospital which recently celebrated its 25th anniversary, although it is now wholly run by the NHS. In 2007, Dick was awarded an MBE for services to chronic fatigue syndrome and ME.
After training in Birmingham and working in the City Architect's department, Dick did two years National Service with the Royal Engineers. He then resumed his professional career as a municipal architect in Nottinghamshire where he met Ros. The couple married in 1963 before moving to Tansley just outside Matlock in Derbyshire on his appointment as Derbyshire's Deputy County Architect.
“I loved our life in Derbyshire and the house there,” remembered his daughter Rowena. “However one important point to note is that it’s not always fun living with an architect as we often lived in a building site as the transformation of each house took place, only for it to be rushed to be finished before we moved again.”
He then fell in love all over again, this time with the county town of Dorchester after he became Dorset County Architect. He left a legacy of lots of schools and sports centres and on retirement joined the Dorchester Civic Society determined to help preserve the town’s best views.
Professionally, he was held in high esteem. He had been elected vice-president of the Royal Institute of British Architects and president of the Society of Chief Architects of Local Authorities.
Ros, who died in 2009, had been suffering with ME since 1982.
The couple leave their daughter, Rowena, two sons, Andrew and Adrian, and eight grandchildren. For the last five years of Dick’s life, after dementia had taken its horrible toll, he had been cared for in a nursing home. The family have huge thanks for the care he received there.
The funeral was held in Dorchester on 7th October.
Tony Britton
Senior Fundraising Consultant, The ME Association
tony.britton@meassociation.org.uk Mob: 07393 805566
