Sparkman Crane Funeral Home
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James Arthur Patrick III passed away on March 3, 2024, at age 90, of natural causes, in the presence of family and friends, at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, Texas. Author, Architect, Dean, College Founder, Professor, Theologian, Friend, Advisor, Counselor, Husband, Father, and Grandfather, he was beloved for his enthusiasm for learning and his great love for Jesus Christ and His Church. Born in Paris, Tennessee, to James Arthur and Neva Harris Patrick, he grew up in Nashville, received his Bachelor of Architecture from Auburn University, and met there the woman he would love forever, Mary Welford Pringle Smith. They were married on December 19th 1955, and celebrated 68 years of marriage. He received his Master of Sacred Theology degree in 1963 from Sewanee / The University of the South, in years he recalled with affection. In Nashville, at Auburn, in Sewanee and for the rest of his life, he would maintain a career designing houses and churches. He completed his Doctoral Degree in Theology at Trinity College, University of Toronto. His son, Michael Harris Heaton Patrick, was born in 1964. Dr. Patrick returned to Tennessee as Rector of All Saints' Episcopal Church in Morristown, 1966-1970, and taught Philosophy for the Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia Congregation in Nashville. Moving to Wisconsin to become Associate Professor in Ethics at Nashota House, Dr. Patrick completed his last years in what Dr. and Mrs. Patrick would fondly call their beloved Episcopal Church. The years of intellectual and spiritual discovery built to a call that could not be resisted, for both Dr. and Mrs. Patrick, to be received into the Roman Catholic Church. Dr. Patrick moved in 1971 to be Professor and then Dean of the School of Architecture at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. In 1975, Dr. Patrick became the Chairman, Director of Graduate Programs, and Associate Professor in the Department of Theology at the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas, then Academic Dean of the University. From 1981 to 2013, Dr. Patrick was Director, Provost and then Chancellor of the College of Saint Thomas More in Ft. Worth, Texas, which he founded and nourished with great friends. The College, in Dr. Patrick's own words, became "a distinctive academic fellowship, based on the idea of the colleges that comprised Newman's Oxford, dedicated to the belief that the companionable pursuit of Great Books and great ideas lifts up the heart of both those who teach and those who learn and encourages everyone to aspire to a genuinely good life, which means life in Christ, although this lies beyond the direct commission of liberal learning." He later founded the Lewis-Tolkien Society and the Thomas More Institute, which are active today. Dr. Patrick was a Knight of Magistral Grace of the Sovereign Military Order of Jerusalem, Rhodes, and Malta, for which vocation he was profoundly grateful. He wrote numerous books on Architecture, Philosophy, Collegiate Education, and Theology, including his recent work: The Making of the Christian Mind, and has published many dozens of Chapters, Articles, Reviews and Papers. He continued teaching to the last, presiding over his weekly Lewis-Tolkien Society class "Text and Talk" by Zoom on Saturday, March 2, the day before he was called home. His life was lived in pursuit of the Good, the Beautiful and the True. Dr. Patrick was preceded in death by his parents, and by his sisters Lois Morton and Mary Long. He is survived by his wife, Pringle Patrick, his son & daughter-in law Michael and Magda, granddaughter Leila Catherine, and nieces and nephews John Long, Belinda Long Stevens, Marie Morton McElhannon and Lois Anne Morton Murphy, and their families. The Funeral Mass will be held on Thursday, March 21st, at 7:00 PM, at Mater Dei Catholic Church, 2030 East State Highway 356, Irving, Texas 75060; Rosary preceding at 6:30 PM. A private family burial will take place at Salem Cemetery in Cato, Mississippi. For full obituary visit www.Sparkman-Crane.com. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the The Thomas More Institute, 8417 Bluebonnet Rd., Dallas, TX 75209-2805, or The Lewis Tolkien Society, 1505 Riverview Dr., Arlington, TX 76012.
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