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Samuel Kinnear Patton died peacefully on April 5, 2023, at age 93 at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
He is survived by brother Finley, wife Stephanie, daughter Elizabeth, son William, granddaughters Sarah and Grace, and grandson Benjamin.
Born in Lexington, Sam was taught to read well before starting school by his schoolteacher mother, who also was a library volunteer, so the Lexington Library was one of his favorite places from a young age.
During his freshman year at Washington and Lee University, he drove as a volunteer an old school bus that had been converted into a bookmobile. His routes took him through small towns in two counties in the mountains up and down both sides of the Shenandoah Valley, in all kinds of weather. With no local libraries nearby, bookmobile day was a big deal, and cocoa (for the driver) and tea and coffee were ready and waiting for the other volunteers with their precious cargo.
In 1953 Sam enlisted in the U.S. Army, spending a year training for the Counter Intelligence Corps, and two years in Japan during the occupation at the end of the Korean War. As part of a local theater group in Tokyo, he worked on special effects magic and met a young Harry Blackstone Jr., who was also serving in Japan.
Sam joined IBM in 1959, where he worked for the next 31 years. He and Stephanie and the children moved to Hopewell Junction in 1967, where they discovered the tiny library that Granny Alley and a few of her friends had started in the old church in Fishkill Plains.
Librarian Nan Cross soon invited him to get involved as a library trustee. He remained involved off and on locally until December of 2015, and regionally with the Mid-Hudson Library Board, and at the state level with the New York State Association of Library Boards.
In the 70s Sam was elected to a five-year term on the then seven-member Wappingers Central School District Board of Trustees. Those were tempestuous years, with meetings often running to midnight or later, and a few members became notorious for sometimes getting so angry at each other that they came close to fisticuffs. One night one of them grabbed a fire extinguisher and threatened to spray his adversary across the table.
Nan Cross also invited Sam to get involved in politics. With her support, he was elected to the East Fishkill Town Council and later served as town supervisor in ‘92-’94 and ‘94-’96.
Sam was a fixture at the Hopewell Reformed Church for decades. He was a deacon in 1973, elder from 1977 to 1979, and he served the church as greeter, reader, sound technician, and in countless other capacities over the years.
Sam was a man of many interests and hobbies and was especially fond of magic. He had seen world-famous magicians on tour where he was living, and then discovered the trove of books on magic in local libraries. He used to delight in doing magic shows for friends and family, with younger brother Finley as his assistant. He was a longtime member of our local Al Baker Assembly of Magic and served a term as president.
A funeral was held at Hopewell Reformed Church in Hopewell Junction on Monday, April 10. Arrangements were under the direction of the McHoul Funeral Home Inc.
Memorial donations may be made to the East Fishkill Community Library.
