During his 22 medical missions, Dr. J.D. Patterson of Searcy would sometimes need to go deep into a jungle and set up a dental extraction clinic on a riverbank where he would treat hundreds of patients on a two-week trip, his daughter remembered Tuesday.
Patterson, a noted alumnus and benefactor of Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, died Sunday at age 90. He spent more than 60 years in dental practice in Searcy before retiring in 2015.
Patterson's strong commitment to medical missions took him to Brazil 14 times among his 22 missions between 1985 and 2008, all lasting about two weeks. His trips included missions to eight other countries, including Haiti, Chile, China and Guatemala. He also took 15 college students with him on those missions through the years, said his daughter, Dr. Beth Patterson, a pediatric dentist in Searcy.
"I went on four trips with him," she said Tuesday. "Of those 15 students, four of us made dentists. He was my mentor in oral surgery. I took out 200 to 300 teeth my first trip."
In a 2012 interview with the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, J.D. Patterson recalled "using small boats to go up the Amazon to the end of nowhere" to treat patients in the Brazil jungles. Without electricity, all he could do was extract teeth.
"I might easily treat 100 patients a day during a mission, with 200 extractions," he said in the interview. "Not only was there no electricity, there was no running water, no sanitation, no nothing.
"But my missions were all worth it because I enjoy helping people who have absolutely nothing," he said.
The dental work was her father's way of reaching the people he would testify to about God on the mission trips, Beth Patterson said.
"He just felt it's hard for people to be led to Jesus if they have other problems and, predominantly, if they have pain," she said. "It's hard to listen to someone tell you about a faraway God and you've got a toothache."
As a 1947 alumnus of OBU, J.D. Patterson kept close ties with the university as a benefactor and a former two-term member of the school's board of trustees.
Patterson funded a number of academic initiatives, including establishing scholarships in memory of his parents, Dr. Jesse and Elizabeth Patterson, and his wife, Nancy, who died in 2004, according to a university news release. He also funded the E.A. Provine Chair of Chemistry in memory of a former professor, the J.D. Patterson Chair of Biology, two laboratories in the Harvey Jones Science Center and the annual Patterson Summer Research Program.
School trustees honored him by naming the J.D. Patterson School of Natural Sciences for him in 2002. Patterson was also recipient of OBU's Distinguished Alumnus Award in 1984 and an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 1999.
"During a recent visit with Dr. Patterson, he talked about his love for Ouachita and his love for missions," Ouachita Baptist University President Ben Sells said in a statement provided by the university. "Ouachita is known for its strong science program. Dr. Patterson's support and partnership is one of the reasons this is true."
Metro on 03/29/2017