Code Talker passes on

WINDOW ROCK

Navajo Code Talker David Patterson, Sr., has passed on. He was 94.

According to his son, Pat Patterson, his father died at 2:42 a.m. this morning at the Rio Rancho Care Center in Rio Rancho, N.M., from complications stemming from a fall on Sept. 8 at his son’s home. During his stay in the hospital, he contracted pneumonia.

“He was brave until the very end, but was just not strong enough to overcome this battle,” his son wrote on his GoFundMe page.

Patterson enlisted into the Marine Corps in 1943 and honorably discharged on April 7, 1945. After serving his country, he went to college in Oklahoma and New Mexico, earning a degree in social work, his son said.

The Code Talker raised his family in Oklahoma and in California, before moving back to Shiprock. There he worked for the Navajo Nation Division of Social Service until retiring in 1987.

After his service to the Navajo Nation, Patterson volunteered as a foster grandparent for schools in the Shiprock area.

On November 24, 2001, Patterson, and other Code Talkers, were awarded the Silver Congressional Medal of Honor.

The Los Angeles Dodgers fan was a devout Catholic and loved playing bingo, and was an avid bowler, his son wrote.

“We will all miss you and cherish you for all of eternity. You were my father, my hero, my mentor, and my bowling partner,” he wrote.

Patterson had six children, one of whom passed on before him. He lived with Pat at his home in Rio Rancho from 2012 to 2017.

Funeral services for Patterson will be held in Shiprock at the Christ The King Catholic Church. However, Pat said a date a time have not, yet, been set. A GoFundMe page titled, David E. Patterson, Sr’s Funeral, has been set up.

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