William J. Paterson, former Gilroy School Board Trustee, passed away on December 12, 2007.
For 17 years, Bill served on the Gilroy Unified School Board, three times as it’s president.
In 1973, when he was first elected, he ran as a single issue candidate: He said that the present high school was an embarrassment to the community and that Gilroy needed a new high school. He took colored slides of other high schools in other communities and gave talks to groups all over town.
He is survived by his wife Jan. There are six Paterson children; Andy Paterson, Brenda Johnson, Carolyn Kruse, Dawna Leong, Elaine Hutchins and Elizabeth Paterson. There are 13 grandchildren.
Originally from San Francisco, Bill came to Gilroy in 1965 after eight years in the hospital corps at the US Air Force Academy. Captain Paterson was staff orthodontist for the cadets.
While building his orthodontic practice in Gilroy, he taught the then required course in health education, two mornings a week at Gavilan College.
During the mid 80’s when it was trendy to open a branch office in a neighboring community, he “pretended” that his “branch office” was at Berkeley Graduate Theological Union and earned a master’s degree in theology (M.DIV.).
Retiring from the private practice of dentistry, he served 14 years on the pastoral staff of the First Presbyterian Church of Salinas.
In 1975, Bill was selected as the Chamber of Commerce Man of the Year, largely for his work with Young Life and Gilroy teenagers, both on a weekly club night and at the level of summer camp.
The Gilroy Presbyterian Church is planning a Memorial Service Saturday, January 12th. at 12 noon.
Donations requested to Intervarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, P.O. Box 7895 Madison, WI 53707 www.intervarsity.org or Memorial Sloan-Ketterin Cancer Center, P.O. Box 27106, New York, NY 10087-7106, form may be downloaded at www.mskcc.org designate “Waldenstrom’s” research.
