Andrew Burr Patterson

A resident of Pacific Palisades for 36 years, Andrew Burr Patterson, MD passed away peacefully on Friday, May 20 at the age of 86.

A native of Wayland, Massachusetts, Dr. Patterson received his undergraduate degree from Cornell University, then served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict.

He graduated with honors from the UCLA Medical School in 1958 and subsequently established a private psychiatry practice in Beverly Hills and Brentwood. As a leading physician in his field, he served as an assistant clinical professor at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the Robert F. Kennedy Medical Center in Hawthorne, California and was a senior faculty member of the Los Angeles Psychoanalytic Society-Institute.

Andy raised four children in Pacific Palisades with his wife of 50 years, Doris B. Patterson (1930-2004), who was a beloved preschool teacher at the Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church Nursery School from 1981 to 1997.

Andy served the Pacific Palisades community in a variety of ways, including a stint as the Palisades Park Little League’s commissioner of baseball in the late 1970s, where he may be remembered for persuading actor and neighbor Walter Matthau to throw out the opening pitch following the release of his motion picture “The Bad News Bears.”

Andy was an avid golfer for more than 60 years, as well as a master woodworker and model ship builder and an accomplished classical pianist who enjoyed performing for his community up until the time of  his death.

He is preceded in death by his son Jeffrey Burr Patterson, who died in an automobile accident in November 2006 at the age of 42. Andy is survived by brother Mike Patterson of Wayland, Massachusets; daughters Julie P. Kovsky (husband Steve) of Carlsbad, California; and Kate Patterson of Oceanside, California; as well as son Steven Patterson of San Francisco, and three grandchildren: Nicholas, Aaron and Jenna Kovsky.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on June 25, 2016, at Altavita (formerly Air Force Village West) in Riverside, California, where he resided for the past 11 years.

In his memory, the family would welcome contributions to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society or the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation.