Robert H. Patterson Jr.

Robert Hobson Patterson Jr. (January 30, 1927 – July 12, 2012) was an American lawyer. He served as managing partner and chair of the executive committee of McGuireWoods, was president of the Virginia State Bar, and was a member – later president – of the board of visitors of his undergraduate alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute. He was the lead attorney for VMI in United States v. Virginia, though Theodore Olson argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Politically a conservative, he was an assistant to Governor Thomas B. Stanley in 1956. He was later the Henrico County chair of Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968 and was the state chair of Harry F. Byrd Jr.'s U.S. Senate campaign in 1970. In 1988, he was floated as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate against Democratic former governor Chuck Robb.

Early life and family Childhood, military service, and education Patterson was born on January 30, 1927, in Richmond, Virginia, the only son of Margaret Snoddy (née Sargent; 1902–1987), a nurse, and Robert Hobson Patterson (1892–1985), a railroad engineer and United States Navy veteran of World War I. His paternal grandfather, George W. Patterson of Buckingham County, Virginia was a second lieutenant in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He grew up in Richmond's working-class Church Hill neighborhood.

Patterson attended the public John Marshall High School in downtown Richmond, serving as first captain of its corps of cadets during his senior year. After graduating high school in 1944, he entered the Virginia Military Institute and was elected vice president of his class but was expelled the following year for being a troublemaker. He chose to enlist in the Navy and served during the closing months of World War II. In 1946, despite being offered an appointment to the United States Naval Academy, he returned to VMI, where he studied history. He later attended the University of Virginia School of Law, where he was selected to be on the staff of the Virginia Law Review. He graduated with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1952. They went on to have three children: India, Robert III, and Margaret. Luise died in on January 17, 2001.

Patterson later married Anne Marie Whittemore, a partner at McGuireWoods who served as his co-counsel in the VMI case, on November 15, 2003. In 1971, he was the only partner to oppose hiring Whittemore as an associate, voting on the basis of her sex, though he later admitted to having changed his mind about her.

Later life and death On December 31, 1999, Patterson retired from the practice of law, devoting himself to volunteer work.

Patterson's health began to decline after he suffered a stroke on February 18, 2011. He died on July 12, 2012, at VCU Medical Center in Richmond. Following services at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Goochland County, he was buried in the church cemetery alongside his first wife.