Oral history interview with Dr. Jeffrey Patton, 2017

Brittany H.: My name is Brittany Hedrick, and today is Tuesday, January 31st, 2017. I'm in Parrish Library with Dr. Jeffrey Patton, Professor of Geography, to conduct an oral history interview for the UNCG Institutional Memory Collection. Thank you, Dr. Patton for participating in this project and sharing your experiences with me.

Brittany H.: I'd like to start the interview by asking you about your childhood. Could you tell me when and where you were born?

Jeffrey Patton: I was born in Charleroi, Pennsylvania, in 1952, but moved away when I was four. I moved to Ohio, and I grew up in Ohio, outside of Cleveland.

Brittany H.: Well, could you tell me about your family and your home life?

Jeffrey Patton: I have four brothers. I'm the fourth of the five. My father worked through the steel industry, for the railroad actually, within the steel 00:01:00industry. My mother was a school teacher. With having four brothers, our household became the center for the neighborhood. Everybody came over to play with somebody in the family. It was pretty normal, middle class, suburban household. Growing up, I lived on a small lake, which was fun.

Brittany H.: Where did you go to high school?

Jeffrey Patton: I went to high school in Amherst, Ohio. We had moved there when I was in the fourth grade, so I really consider Amherst home. I was not a particularly good student, but I managed to stay awake for most of my high school.

Brittany H.: Did you ... You enjoyed school?

Jeffrey Patton: Not particularly. I had a handful of classes I very much 00:02:00enjoyed: a history class I remember, and a political science class, and a chemistry course I enjoyed. But other than that, I dreaded going to school most of the time. I was not, as I said, a good student in high school.

Brittany H.: When did you graduate from high school?

Jeffrey Patton: I graduated in 1970. From there, I went to Bowling Green University in Ohio, because my three older brothers had all gone there. In fact, one of my brother's just 10 months older than ... or not 10 months, 18 months older than I am, so we were there together. I think my parents found it much easier if we were all in the same place. I truly enjoyed Bowling Green. It was a wonderful school for me. In many ways, it was sort of a version of UNCG, I think. It wasn't the flagship, but got a very solid undergraduate education. 00:03:00That's the place where I really started to enjoy school.

Brittany H.: What was your major?

Jeffrey Patton: My major was geography, but I also had a major in English, which was an unusual combination, probably, but I liked both of them. I liked to read and thought, when I first went to school, that English was going to be my primary focus, but I very quickly learned that I like the physical side of geography, the earth science side, very much, so I continued my graduate work in that.

Brittany H.: What year did you graduate with your Bachelor's?

Jeffrey Patton: I got my Bachelor's in 1974, and then stayed at Bowling Green for my Master's degree, and at that time began to focus on cartography, mapping, and remote sensing, satellite imaging of the earth. That was a new area at that 00:04:00time. It has become was is known today as geographic information science. I enjoyed that. I think, like a lot of people, a particular professor... I gravitated to his style, and he became a mentor. That was his area, so I continued in that.

Jeffrey Patton: Then went on to the University of Kansas for my doctoral work where I continued in cartography and remote sensing, but also with much heavier emphasis on earth science at that point.

Brittany H.: How did you find out about UNCG and when did you start working here?

Jeffrey Patton: I started in the fall of 1980. When I graduated from Kansas I was beginning to look for a position. Geography is not a huge field, so when 00:05:00positions were available, it was easy to find out what was available through our national organization.

Jeffrey Patton: Like everybody else graduating at the time, I was applying for lots of positions and had attended a national meeting, the Association of American Geographers, and met with Jack Hidore, who is currently the head at University of Indiana's Geography department, but had been hired at UNCG to be the new Head.

Jeffrey Patton: I talked with him, and got along well with him, and met then with two other faculty members from UNCG who had come up to the meetings. I kept asking Jack about UNCG, and he said, "Well, I've only been there once," so he didn't know. We got along well, and a week later, they made an offer to me for a 00:06:00one year appointment. I was pretty excited because, at that time, there weren't that many positions available, so to get one was great.

Jeffrey Patton: I came here having never been here. The first time I was ever on campus, I came into the office and met some of the faculty for the first time. I was a little nervous, to say the least. I was new. But Jack Hidore, the Head, he was great. Actually, everybody was great in the department. They were very ... It was small, very small at the time. I think there were six faculty and probably about eight students majoring, so a pretty good ratio for the students.

Jeffrey Patton: It grew quickly from then, early on. They made ... really nice people. I was there for a year, that was my appointment, and then I had to look around. Jack Hidore, at the time, said he was trying to get a tenure track position, but he couldn't promise that. At the last minute, they did find one. I applied for it, as did many other people. Fortunately, I think I had an edge because I had been there for a year, so I got that position, and 36 years later still here. My one year appointment's lasted a while, so I did that.

Brittany H.: Other than the department, what was your first impression of UNCG?

Jeffrey Patton: It's a very pretty campus. I will say one thing I think is 00:08:00surprising. We were much, much smaller then, but we're a much prettier campus today than we were then. That's a pretty good trick to pull off, to grow as much as we've grown and to become even a nicer looking campus.

Jeffrey Patton: It had certain charm, even at that point of it, the Foust Building, and the College Avenue is very impressive, I think. I like the size. It reminded me of my undergraduate university, so I felt very comfortable. Very quickly, I became involved with some of the social activities on campus. At that time, I think more than today, when new faculty came, the other faculty told them about social activities.

Jeffrey Patton: A lot of the faculty played softball every Wednesday, and I did 00:09:00that. Some of the people I played softball with, we still play softball every once in a while today. We're not very good at it, but we still play. They stayed friends. There were a new faculty group, or a single at the time, a single faculty group that met, so a lot of things that made you feel part of the social community at that time.

Jeffrey Patton: We've grown a lot. I think we've lost a little bit of that, but it's still there.

Brittany H.: Were there any other social or academic events that stand out in your mind, aside from softball?

Jeffrey Patton: This has been going on. My wife and I have been part of a group of faculty on campus. We meet once a month. We just call it the Seminar Group. 00:10:00We meet at each other's homes. There's probably about 20 people involved. We just rotate through homes, and whose turn it is will give some lecture on whatever topic comes to mind. It's been fascinating. The only rules in the group are that only one couple from one department, so you always have a mix of different groups.

Jeffrey Patton: I've learned a lot about a lot of things, but I've also met a lot of good friends in that group. It's been going on for a long time. It was there before I was there too, of course.

Brittany H.: That's really cool.

Jeffrey Patton: It is cool. It's really cool. Some of the things you've learned: Victorian seances. You learn interesting things.

Brittany H.: While at UNCG, what were your areas of focus in teaching, practice, 00:11:00and scholarship?

Jeffrey Patton: I was hired primarily to teach cartography, and remote sensing, aerial photography, and earth science. I've pretty much stayed in those areas all the time. I've taught courses periodically on the United States and Canada, the general geography, and a few others, but primarily earth science and cartography is teaching.

Jeffrey Patton: My research has been in cartography, particularly in how children use maps and how we can design maps for children, specifically for children. Early on, that was almost entirely what I did. I've done a little more lately in science education.

Jeffrey Patton: I worked with Jeff Soles in the Classics department for many summers at an archeologic site in Crete. I did the mapping for the site, both 00:12:00surface mapping and some underwater mapping for him. That was a fascinating experience. When you're 28 years old, and somebody offers to take you to Greece for a summer and pay for everything, you say yes, and then you ask, "What am I going to do?" That was good. What else have I done?

Jeffrey Patton: In scholarship ... Like I said, for 12 years I was Department Head until this year. That's a very different job than teaching. I think it was the right time for me to do it, and I think the department is growing very rapidly. Like I said, when I first came, we were undergraduate only with a handful of majors, and today we are a doctoral granting department with 20 00:13:00doctoral students, and 40 MA students, and 80-90 undergraduate students, so it's a much different atmosphere.

Jeffrey Patton: I'm proud that I was part of that. I'd say Gordon Bennett led the department in that area, but it's nice to see something flourish. Particularly, we had some tough years when I was Department Head, financially, but we survived, and we are still here and proud of those.

Brittany H.: Could you elaborate a little bit on the types of students that you've had in the department over the years?

Jeffrey Patton: The students have been great. There are students I had when I 00:14:00first came here that still are in contact with me. My wife and I went to dinner just before Christmas, a couple of my former students asked me, when I realized that I had taught them in 1987, so it's been a while. When the one would tell me he was retiring, I knew I'd been here too long.

Jeffrey Patton: I truly have enjoyed the students. I think the area where I've gotten to know students the best are my cartography classes, because that's a very hands-on laboratory based course. It's not testing so much. It's creation of things, so I've known them well. The other area where I've really known students well is: I've taken students out west each summer. In the early years, we would go for a month. We would camp, we'd cook our own food, and travel six, 00:15:00seven thousand miles through western national parks into Canada. We've been as far north as the Yukon in Canada, and as far south as Mexico, not in one summer. We've done these trips each summer.

Jeffrey Patton: I think, as a teaching experience, it's the one thing that I have introduced to the department, one of the things I'm truly proud about because we still do it today. Dr. Lewis and I took 20 students last summer to Oregon on one of these trips. Today, we spend a few more nights in hotels, and we tend to fly out. We used to drive from here, but it's still the same experience. It's a lot of work in the field, seeing a lot of things.

Jeffrey Patton: What I was going to say is, what is different about it than almost any other university in the country is: I set it up initially to work 00:16:00with kids who are just beginning their degree. Most departments, their field experience courses are for their seniors or graduate students. Our approach was: well, if they could see a lot of these things in the field, then all of their other courses would make more sense later on.

Jeffrey Patton: I think it's been very successful that way. I will say, we also now have a blend where we also have a course for graduate students and seniors, but we still like to get those early undergraduates to go too. You should go. I've taken a lot of faculty, and others from other departments too, that want to go. It's fun.

Brittany H.: Could you tell me about any professors, fellow coworkers, in your department who made an impression on you?

Jeffrey Patton: I think all my-

Brittany H.: You've mentioned a few.

Jeffrey Patton: Yeah. I think all of them have made an impression on me. Jack Hidore was my first Department Head, and probably a mentor to me in what it was to be a professor. I can remember the very first day I was here, the first day of school, where a student came in and started asking me questions. I realized that this student thought I knew all the answers about my subject, about ... And that was a shock because four weeks earlier, I had been the student going and trying to get the answers. Now, I had this new status that was kind of surprising. Jack Hidore really helped me a lot, both in preparing classes, but understanding what my role was. He was a great Department Head.

Jeffrey Patton: The other person that probably be most important to me is Gordon 00:18:00Bennett. Gordon, he stepped down. His last year was last year. He had came here in the late 60's, so he had a long experience here. Gordon is one of the nicest people you will ever meet. I've never heard him say anything unkind about anyone, I truly mean that. He was Department Head, and I learned a lot about being a department from watching him, and how he handled situations, and how he always put the department first in almost everything. He was great, and a good friend.

Jeffrey Patton: He and I have written several books together, and that's an interesting experience too. For some people, collaborating with someone else is very difficult. He made it easy, and that was great.

Jeffrey Patton: Mike Lewis, in my department. Mike goes out west with me, so I know him real well. There have been others earlier, Mike Mayfield, who's now at 00:19:00Appalachian State. He and I took students out for many years, out west. Then when Mike Mayfield left, Mike Lewis took his position. We've done that. There have been good friends too.

Brittany H.: I wanted to ask you about how the Geography department has changed. I know you mentioned size, the Master's program, the doctorate degree. Anything else you want to add to that?

Jeffrey Patton: When you have those kind of programs, they change ... It's not just size. Doctoral institutions are much more research focused. When we were small, the one on one classes would be small. You got to know students very, 00:20:00very well. Then, as you got bigger, you lost a little bit of that, but you could bring more resources, to bear a tooth, more faculty, more variety of instruction. With the doctoral program and the MA program, a lot more emphasis on research in the department, and grants, and things like that.

Jeffrey Patton: It becomes different. I once told my wife that I've had three jobs in my life, and they've all been at UNCG. When I first came in, the undergraduate only teaching position was a very different job than being a graduate adviser. Being Department Head was even more different. It's changed a lot. I'd say sometimes you long for what was gone in some ways, that intimate 00:21:00undergraduate program, but I think the department makes a much greater contribution today because of these other programs, and that's important.

Jeffrey Patton: We're a department that's very active with the community. A lot of internship opportunities in the department. If you go into planning agencies in the cities around Greensboro or Greensboro, they're filled with our graduates. We work with them as well. I've always enjoyed that about the program. We have a lot of application of our research to local, regional, and state issues, so that's good.

Brittany H.: I guess the department has ... it's better off, financially, now?

Jeffrey Patton: As Department Head, when I was Department Head, we were never financially well off. We always had to ask for more money. We're larger. We have more faculty, more resources in terms of laboratory spaces, so in many ways we are. The last few years, like a lot of departments on campus, we saw significant cuts. Some of the retirements we've had ... we haven't been able to fill those positions.

Jeffrey Patton: I've seen that. I've been here a long time. Things go up, they go down, based on the state's economy or who's in the governor's mansion. I think, if you look at the long term trend, yes, but at any moment, you can say it was better three years ago or those kind of things. We could certainly use 00:23:00more financial help.

Brittany H.: How have you served beyond UNCG in professional organizations?

Jeffrey Patton: Let's see. I was President of the North American Cartographic Society on two occasions, in the 80's and 90's, and that's my professional organization for my research area. It's, I think, the largest now cartographic association in the United States.

Jeffrey Patton: Then, there is a North Carolina Geographical Society. I served as President of that one year. It's more social for the geographers in the state, but some have a journal and those kind of things. It is a way of keeping people at the different universities together. We used to laugh that we used to 00:24:00just rotate through everybody, so everybody became President at some point. It's not that large.

Jeffrey Patton: I served on committees, both state committees and for advisory things. Pretty much it.

Brittany H.: Did you have any interactions with the chancellors throughout your years: Moran, Sullivan, Brady, or the new chancellor?

Jeffrey Patton: With all of them, at some point I met all of them. Moran probably the least. I was a young assistant professor, and I think we only overlapped for a year or two, maybe more. I didn't leave the department very often. I think that's probably typical of young faculty. You stay in the department. I worked with deans much more than chancellors, of course.

Jeffrey Patton: Moran always seemed very reserved to me. I had no real sense of him, personally. Chancellor Sullivan was the chancellor I probably worked most closely with. I enjoyed my time with her. I remember seeing her the first few times thinking: she is nervous. I kind of enjoyed that. Enjoyed is the wrong word. I kind of related to that. Here she is in this position and seemed to be very quiet and sort of taking it all in, and not a very outgoing chancellor at all. I was thinking: well, but chancellor's need to be outgoing.

Jeffrey Patton: I will say that she is one, as I watched, she developed in that 00:26:00position wonderfully. I think she was a great chancellor for us, for the University. It was at a time when we were trying to build the department from the undergraduate, to the MA, to the PhD program. Getting a lot of support from your chancellor makes you feel good about her too, so we had that.

Jeffrey Patton: Chancellor Brady, I didn't work with that closely. I always felt that she inherited a very solid university, and then someone pulled the rug out from her financially. She dealt with more financial issues, I think, than any chancellor I've seen, and that's difficult. No one is happy when things are being cut, so I think she had a very difficult time. I respected her for trying 00:27:00to deal with that. I don't know. I never felt like I was making many connections with her though.

Jeffrey Patton: Our new chancellor is very different. I enjoy ... I was stepping down as Department Head when he came in. I met him a few times in that role early on. He is very outgoing, and I think maybe the right person at the right time for this University. We need a much more assertive person, and he also, I think, is someone who brings some fun to the University. Fun is a very powerful tool, I think, for building moral in the university. I have a lot of good 00:28:00feelings about him.

Brittany H.: Okay. Well, tell me how working at UNCG has impacted and affected your life. What does UNCG mean to you?

Jeffrey Patton: Well, UNCG's ... I've been here 36 years, so it's most of my life, the largest part of my life. Met my wife here, she works on campus. Margaret works in the Honors College, and she's been wonderful. I met her playing volleyball with UNCG faculty and staff. She worked in the library at the time, so that was obviously important to me. She's highly supportive. My father once said that I married better than my daughter-in-law, and he was probably right.

Jeffrey Patton: We adopted two children, Elaina and Calvin, from Russia, so they grew up on this campus. Calvin is at the early college right now in the what they call STEM education, which is ... One of the things that I'm most proud of in my accomplishments has been the STAMPS Program and the GK-12 Program that I've been involved with, which are all STEM related. I'm happy about that. He told me the other day that he thought he would come to UNCG in the fall. He's looking elsewhere as well, but he's leaning toward UNCG. I was a little surprised, but that makes me feel really good because I think it's a great place.

Jeffrey Patton: It was very supportive to me early on. When I became Department 00:30:00Head, Tim Johnson as dean was very supportive both of me personally and of the department. It sounds trite, but it really is a lot of very decent people work here. They are trying to do something that's really important, and that's educate the students here. I think they educate them both with what they learn in their classes, but also the role models that these people play for these students. It's been great.

Brittany H.: Well, we're doing these interviews as part of the 125th anniversary of the University, which is an excellent opportunity for reflection, but it also helps us to think about where we are heading in the future. What do you think the future is for UNCG, and where do you see UNCG going as an institution in the 00:31:00next 25 to 50 years?

Jeffrey Patton: That's a difficult one. I hope it always gets better, and it has gotten better while I've been here. Universities, state supported universities, are dependent on the state legislature and some of the politics of the state. It's an uncertain time right now for that, both on the national and state level, where those people want the state institutions to go.

Jeffrey Patton: I think we offer so much that, ultimately, the value of them 00:32:00will be clear. I think UNCG will get better. That's been our history for, I think, 125 years, so I think it will continue.

Brittany H.: Well, I don't think I have any more formal questions for you, but did you have anything you would like to add about your time here at UNCG or any other experiences you would like to mention?

Jeffrey Patton: I've enjoyed it. It's simple. I've been fortunate enough to enjoy my job for 36 years. I don't know how many more years, but a few more to go. You can't ask for more than that, right? It's been great.

Brittany H.: Well, thank you so much.