Obituary of William Fred Patient

William F. Patient William (Bill) Fred Patient, 85, passed away on Tuesday, February 25, 2020 after a long, valiant battle with cancer. He will be dearly missed by his family and many friends. Born July 22, 1934, in St. Louis, Missouri, Bill was the son of the late Lawrence and Eleanor Patient. He received a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and did post-graduate studies at the University of Houston. Bill began his career with Standard Oil, in Houston, Texas and moved with the company to Joliet, Illinois. The lure of the emerging plastics industry took him to Borg-Warner Chemicals. He worked in various positions for Borg-Warner Chemicals/GE Plastics from 1962 to 1989 including vice president, Sales & Marketing; vice president, Manufacturing; and president of Borg-Warner Chemicals Europe. Bill then joined B.F. Goodrich Company as a senior vice president and president of its Geon Vinyl Division. In 1993, the division became a publicly held company, the Geon Company (later becoming PolyOne Corporation) where he served as the CEO and Chairman of the Board. Bill was a passionate advocate for higher education and served on the Board of Directors for both Cleveland State University and his alma mater, Washington University. He served on the Cleveland Tomorrow Board of Directors, championed Habitat for Humanity and chaired the National Junior Olympics. He was an active member of St. Odilia's Catholic Community. He pursued many philanthropic endeavors in each community where he and his family called home. Bill loved to travel and saw much of the world over his lifetime. He especially enjoyed traveling with his family in the Western United States where he followed the trail of the cowboys and explorers that he read about as a boy. He was an avid golfer and managed to find a good golf course in almost any location where he found himself. He had a great group of golfing buddies in Tucson and enjoyed his weekly round with them. His favorite golf outings were with his son, son-in-law and grandson when they visited the great courses in Ireland and Scotland. When he wasn't golfing, he enjoyed a good book and a cigar. His favorites were books about history but loved a good spy thriller, too. Bill is survived by Bonnie, his loving wife of 63 years, and his daughters Melisa Williamson, Cindy and her husband Kenneth Riggs, Alison, Jeanette and her husband Craig Daniels, his daughter-in-law Rita and granddaughter-in-law Lori Williamson. He is also survived by his grandchildren Pamela and her husband Jake Mancini, Courtney and his great-granddaughter, Jaime. He is preceded in death by his son, William (Bill) F. Patient Jr., his two grandsons, William (Billy) F. Patient III and Jeremy Williamson as well as his sister, Dianne Waghorn. Visitation will be held at Adair Avalon Funeral Chapel in Tucson on Tuesday, March 3, 2020, from 4pm to 7pm. His funeral mass will be held at St. Odilia's Catholic Community at 11:00am on Wednesday, March 4, 2020, with interment to follow at Holy Hope Cemetery. The family asks for any donations in memory of William Patient to be made to the "Bill and Bonnie Patient Scholarship" fund in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis, #1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, Mo. 63130, or to Saint Jude Children's Research Children Hospital at stjude.org.