Alex Paterson passed away on May 30, 2018. He was 94 years old. A memorial service will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, June 2 at the First United Methodist Church at 300 W. College Avenue in Silver City.
Alex was born on December 2, 1923 in Clifton, Arizona. He was the youngest of three children born to Christina Peat and John Morrison Paterson, emigrants from Scotland who journeyed to southeastern Arizona in 1906 to work in the copper mines. His father was a mechanic. Alex's earliest memories were of hardship. The mine retired his father in 1929 with $600. His mother, an orphan who had worked as a dairy maid in Scotland, took part of the funds and bought several milk cows. Thus began the Paterson Dairy in North Clifton. During the Depression, Alex delivered milk to neighbors in a wagon. On weekends as a youngster, he worked at Zorilla's meat packing facility. He slaughtered cull cows. His pay was the hocks, occasional tail and tripe that his family ate in soups the rest of the week. During high school, the Patersons and their dairy cows moved to Wards Canyon, outside Clifton. Alex was graduated from Clifton High School six months before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. For the next year, he attended Arizona State College while he recovered from surgery on his chronically flat feet. At the end of the year, the draft board rejected his application to enlist for health reasons and told him to go home to deliver milk. He did. Throughout the War, he wrote weekly to his brother, Bill, who had enlisted and would serve with distinction in North Africa, France and at the Buchenwald Concentration Camp. With his beloved sister, Jessie, Alex ran the milk business and cared for his aged parents. He sold the cows in 1953 and was a Borden milk distributor until 1963.
On a March morning in 1949, Alex was delivering milk to the Morenci Hospital when he saw a newly-arrived nurse. They spoke. He asked her to a movie. She accepted. The following January, Alex married Helen Marceline Gunnary, a native of central Minnesota. She passed away in 2015. They had been married for 65 years. They had four children: Dr. John Paterson, a beef-cattle nutritionist in Montana; Jimmy who died in 1965; Mary Curry, who resides in Las Cruces; and Dr. Tom Paterson, a trial lawyer and cattle rancher. They would have eight grandchildren.
This family of poor immigrants knew that education holds the key to advancement. At Helen's urging, Alex enrolled at Eastern Arizona College in 1960. While she raised children, ran the milk business and worked in the hospital or as a school nurse, he drove back and forth for a year to Thatcher. He continued his studies at Western New Mexico University in Silver City, making the drive from Clifton three days each week. He graduated in 1963 with a BA in education. Alex worked as a seventh grade teacher in Clifton for two years before going to the high school to teach. During evenings, he taught Adult Basic Education so his students could obtain a GED. In 1967, he and Helen moved their family to Silver City. Alex received his MA in 1968. He taught English and speech at Cobre High School and served as the Information Officer for the District until his retirement in 1982. At his urging, Helen attended WNMU until she received her BA in University Studies in 1978.
In retirement, Alex worked on his cattle ranch near Luna and travelled with Helen. For him, stewardship of natural resources was a priority. He served his community as Chairman of the San Francisco Soil and Water Conservation District for 15 years. He served on the board for the Black Range Conservation District for five years. He was a long-time member of the Silver City Kiwanis Club. For many years, he ran the Voice of Democracy Program at Cobre. He was a frequent lay preacher, serving in both English and Spanish, a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church for 15 years and a member of the Clifton School Board for five years.
Alex Paterson lived a long life. He knew much hardship and sorrow but he also had much to be grateful for. After the memorial service, he will be inurned in the Clifton Cemetery in Wards Canyon with his parents, his brother, his sister and her husband, his wife and his son Jimmy. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial contributions be directed to the Luna Community Center, P.O. Box 1, Luna, NM 87824, for the purchase of benches for the children's playground in Luna.
Bright Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, "Traditional Services and Care for your family and friends", 210 W. College Ave., Silver City, New Mexico, 88061. Phone 575-388-1911.
Remembrances can be made at www.brightfuneral.net.