Dorothy Fox Patterson

Dot’ Dorothy Fox Patterson was born May 15, 1931 in Atlanta, GA where her father was employed by Black & Decker as regional sales manager. She passed away December 5, 2023 at 92 years of age; just twelve days after suffering a stroke.

Dot is survived by her loving son Stanley Grabill and his wife Rebecca of Fredericksburg, VA, and loving daughter Katherine Hupfeldt and husband William (predeceased 2004) of Sparks, MD, and by 41 years of devoted marriage to Samuel H. Patterson (predeceased 2012); Samuel Patterson, Jr and wife Hazel of Falmouth, MA, Susan P. Erickson of Parkton, MD, and Jan P. Minor and husband Richard of Morganton, GA. Other direct descendants include: grandson Todd Grabill, wife Paula, their daughters Amelia and Daniela of Raleigh, NC; grandson Dr. Mark Grabill, wife Jamie, their children Nora and Sam of Richmond, VA; granddaughter Lauren Arroyo-Grabill and husband Andrés Arroyo-Unda of Antigua, Guatemala; William Hupfeldt III of Hanover, MD; and Tanner Hupfeldt of Baltimore, MD. By marriage she is survived by grandchildren: Samuel Patterson III, wife Morgan and daughter Hannah of Southbury, CT; Katherine Patterson-Cleary and husband Chuck of South Portland, ME; Laf Erickson, wife Gundula and sons Karl and Gunnar of Frankford, DE; Asa Erickson, wife Michelle and son Cole and daughter Sophia of Freeland, MD; and Allison Zimmerman, daughter of Jan P. Minor of Atlanta, GA. Dot was predeceased by her father Marbury B. Fox and mother Florence H. Fox of Lutherville, MD. In all, she was the matriarch of the family of forty-two prior to her death. Dot would often express her gratitude for how congenial the blended families became. Through all these years the family was vigilant in celebrating Thanksgiving and Easter together, traveling the distances.

Dot Grabill and Sam Patterson married August 1971. They met while working at Black & Decker headquarters in Towson, MD. Dot was a financial analyst for the Specialty Tools Division while Sam was Personnel Manager. Although they did not work directly with each other at B&D, their paths crossed serendipitously. They fell in love soon after the courtship started and agreed to get married ‘while the kids were on summer break from school’, which explains the August ceremony!

Dot graduated high school from the former Hannah Moore Academy for girls of Reisterstown, MD. She later entered secretarial school and served in the University of Maryland’s president’s office. While serving, a female law professor recognized her talent and offered her a scholarship to law school; quite a unique honor as Dot hadn’t any college level education. She had to turn the offer down. At the time she was pregnant with her first. In her 30’s she began taking correspondence courses in accounting, preparing her for her new vocational passion. After a year working at Head Ski Company, she took a job with Black & Decker as a secretary. Given opportunities to voice her astuteness in financial matters, her talents naturally shined and was eventually promoted to Sr. Financial Analyst. She mentored many ‘graduate’ professionals in her time, who earned higher salaries. B&D finally recognized that this self-taught financial sage must be elevated to her true peers.

Once Sam retired at 62 yo, Dot joined him and off they went to become full-time grandparents, cross-country campers, and gentlemen farmers (several steer, fruit and vegetable gardens, canning and freezing their produce, bailing 30 acres of hay-fields and acres of woods to fuel the 120+ year old farm house). The ‘kids’ would pitch-in to mind their 96 acre gentleman’s farm Dorothy Fox Pa,erson Obituary while they took truck and pop-up camper, sometimes 6 weeks, across many favorite parts of the west and south. And they hosted family and friends with the thrill of wintertime sledding down the tractor-packed slopes of the back pasture. On numerous occasions they planned week-long stays at large vacation homes at the beach and Deep Creek Lake… enabling kids and grand-kids to join.

Dot and Sam were truly generous with their time and gifts. Along their journeys they made several life-time friends, and spoke of their adventures together. They were avid followers of University of Maryland football and basketball, and avid fans of the Baltimore Colts, now Ravens. In her later years, football season couldn’t come soon enough: about the only show outside of nightly news for which she would turn on the TV. She loved playing bridge, pinochle, and rummikub and was active in several clubs including traveling to a group of friends from her 30’s in Hampstead, MD. She outlived them all. Much of her alone time was spent reading books; especially spy and suspense. Her reading repertoire was so extensive that she kept a detail log of each book so as to not later repeat.

She was the consummate humble matriarch of the Patterson-Grabill blended family; loving, caring, kind, dependable, honorable and fair-minded with all. How much she is loved and will be missed cannot be described adequately.

A memorial for Dot will be held in the spring of 2024 and we will notify all friends and family