Jack Mansfield Patterson papers, 1908-1976

Jack Mansfield Patterson (1915-1978) developed an interest in aviation in his teens and began collecting aviation souvenirs and autographs of people in aviation. He took flying lessons at State College Air Depot in Boalsburg, Pennsylvania. After graduation from Pennsylvania State University, he began work at the Gulf Research and Development Company, a division of Gulf Oil Corporation, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. While employed at Gulf, he maintained an interest in American aviation history, particularly the history of the air mail system. He served as a naval aviator during World War II on the USS Indianapolis. After the war, Patterson worked for several aviation firms, mostly in a non-aviator capacity, before joining the Boeing Company as an inspector of their aircraft manufacturing units in Seattle, Washington. In 1956, he left Boeing to join the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In 1959, he became an Air Traffic Control Specialist at an FAA Flight Service Station in Thermal, California. He retired from the FAA in 1976.