Man uses his obituary to reveal his fake Ph.D.

Dean Hughson found this remarkable obituary this week in the Salt Lake City newspaper:

Val Patterson Obituary: View Val Patterson's Obituary by Salt Lake Tribune

 

This was all over the news back in mid-July. it even "went viral" here in the wilds of Canada. It wasn't reported in most degree-fora.

His widow has said no, he wasn't kidding -- that the entire confession was true, to the best of her knowledge.

Mr Patterson wrote the document last fall, when he realized he didn't have long to live. He expressed his love for his wife and his passion for his work - electrical engineering. He said his only regret was his smoking habit, which he believed robbed him of at least 10 more years with his wife and family. He apologized to his colleagues for the "Non-Ph.D" but added that all his designs were efficient and worked well. He also reminded them that he "always made them laugh, at work."

The Ph.D. diploma appears to have been issued by a supreme clerical snafu at the university. All I believe Mr. Patterson (undergrad then) requested was a tuition receipt. He further confessed to the 1971 stealing of a safe and a prank he pulled to "get back" at a "mean park ranger."

Yes - a prankster and a one-off criminal act, forty years previously. But I think this is the truth - as does his widow. A last word from a warm and family-oriented man. I think I would have enjoyed knowing Val Patterson.

Johann