Nelson G. Patrick, a man who devoted 70 years of his life to the education of Texas’ young musicians, died Saturday, July 31. He was 92. From the 1930s, when he began teaching choir and band to grade-schoolers in the little towns of Premont and Donna, Texas, the man called Dr. Pat was committed to bringing music into the lives of students across the state. Following a six-year stint directing band and orchestra at Austin High in the 1950s, Patrick was hired by Dean E. William Doty of UT’s College of Fine Arts. For the next 42 years, he worked there, serving as state director of music for the University Interscholastic League from 1961 to 1984; organizing and directing the School of Music’s first Longhorn Music Camps in the Sixties; serving as the College of Fine Arts’ assistant dean, associate dean, and acting dean in the Seventies; and throughout that time teaching everything from the physics of acoustics to band-arranging to the history of the American concert band. He’s also credited with creating and organizing the Texas Music Adjudicators Association and state contests for solo-ensemble, wind ensemble, and marching band. The regard Dr. Pat’s students had for him was made clear in 1994, when UT’s Student Music Educator chapter established an endowed scholarship in his name. Patrick retired from UT in 1995 but continued to teach at the School of Music until 2002 and serve as a consultant to the UIL state director of music through this year. Patrick is survived by his sister, Lola Mae Campbell of San Antonio, and 15 nieces and nephews. Services were held Saturday, Aug. 7, in Hillsboro, Texas. Two scholarship funds have been established in Dr. Pat’s name. Donations may be sent to: Nelson G. Patrick Scholarship Fund, c/o B. Glenn Chandler, Director, UT School of Music, 1 University Station, E3100, Austin, TX 78712-0435; or to Richard Floyd, UIL State Director, PO Box 8028, Austin, TX 78713.
This article appears in August 13 • 2004.