Died: June 20, 1965
Michael Hugh Patrick of Louisville, Kentucky, attended Yale as a National Merit Scholar. He died June 20, 1965 in an automobile accident in Kenton, Kentucky, at the end of Junior year, having left Yale the year before. He was the son of Hugh Bernard Patrick and Betty Jean Brester, and was survived by siblings Tracy, Shawn, Duncan, Kevin, and Stephanie. An avid baseball enthusiast, both as a player and a fan, Michael was on his way to a Cincinnati Reds game when the accident occurred. His death was a tragic loss to his family and our class.
John Skelton remembers:
Michael Hugh Patrick. Smartest person I ever knew, but he never shoved it in your face. He was a joy to be around. Wonderful sense of humor and a smile that occupied his face 90 percent of the time. Loved practical jokes. Would get up in the wee hours of the morning and lock all the doors to the men’s toilets in our lovely (?) quarters freshman year in Farnham Hall. There were no urinals so you had to climb over or crawl under to get into a stall. We never knew he was the mad “locker” until years later. We would have killed him had we known.
A wonderful, gifted athlete also. Great shortstop and batter on our high school baseball team and good at basketball too. Never played high school basketball, but I convinced him to try out for Yale freshman BBall, and we both made the team. I’m looking at a picture of the team that year and his smiling face as I type. He never tried out for Yale baseball.
Mike’s folks were not wealthy by any means, and he had to take a job at Yale to help pay his way. This curtailed a lot of his extracurricular activities, but I never heard him complain. To my surprise he dropped out of Yale after his sophomore year, and I really never knew why. My guess looking back is that he felt he didn’t fit in someway. I felt a touch of that myself.
He was a great friend, and I was devastated when he died. I had even forgiven him for stealing my old girlfriend whom he was preparing to marry. I always think fondly of my time with Mike and I still miss him.