*Lois and Cary met while at The University of Texas at Austin, fell in love their second year there, and married during Christmas break following graduation.*

Whether taking on one of the largest industries in the country on behalf of those it harmed or ensuring students have the opportunity for a quality education, Cary Patterson takes to heart and puts in practice the words of the scripture on the left, that his father, Dr. William R. Patterson, kept under the glass top of his dental practice office desk. His is a fascinating story of seizing opportunities to make a difference.

*Ty and Cary stand on the famous Ben Hogan Bridge which carries golfers over Rae’s Creek on the 12th hole at the Augusta National Golf Club.*

Born and raised in Texarkana, Cary has fond memories of growing up on Olive Street where his 98-year-old mother still resides today. Particularly meaningful are recollections of listening to St. Louis Cardinals games on the radio from his parents’ room across the hall, which led to his love of baseball. He shared that he could almost feel the breeze when recalling those days of open windows and an attic fan when only the den of their home had an air conditioning unit. Summers often meant family trips on the Missouri Pacific railroad for weekend Cardinals games – leaving at 5 p.m. on Friday evening with dinner in the dining car and an overnight in the “sleeper” – arriving by 9 a.m. in St. Louis. Following the afternoon game, Cary, his parents, and brother, Rowan, would have dinner at Stan Musial’s restaurant. After the Sunday afternoon game, it was back to the train to arrive home by 9 a.m. on Monday morning.

Cary describes himself as a good student – always in National Honor Society and the top 10% of his class – but he is quick to add that he was also “bad about pulling pranks.” (Upon meeting this somewhat reserved gentleman, it isn’t difficult to detect that ever-present gleam in his eye!) It seems his jovial nature often led to visits with the high school principal, Mr. Bill McGuire, whom Cary shared was known as “the Great White Eagle” due to his white flowing hair. Those days of “licks” from the Great White Eagle to “straighten him out for a while” led to an enduring friendship with Mr. McGuire later in life.

Valuable lessons were acquired during summers in high school when Cary and his friend Mike Craven worked as caddy masters at Texarkana Country Club. “I learned more about life in those two summers than probably at any other time,” he shared. He found it challenging to be in the position of assigning and supervising the caddies - many of whom were more than twice his age. “The club pro, Mr. Don Murphy, empowered us to lead, but we had to gain the men’s respect by showing them we were doing the right thing.”

*Chad and Cary show off a trout they caught while fly fishing on Lake Fork, a tributary of the Gunnison River in Colorado.*

A profound influence on the man Cary would become were his parents. He spoke with admiration about his father’s uncanny ability to lead you to think you were making decisions on your own. “He didn’t resort to telling you what to do or what not to do,” he recalled. “He simply asked probing questions to help me come to the right answer. That’s certainly a skill I wish I had accomplished with my own children.”

When Cary was about to enter college in 1970, his father had a conversation with him about the path before him. Dr. Patterson had attended Washington University and had graduated first in his class. Education was highly valued by him. With the vast world of The University of Texas at Austin awaiting his son, he made two suggestions to him – one, that he not pledge a fraternity, and two, despite his passion for golf, that he not try to walk on to the UT golf team. Though he had great respect for his father, he chose to join a fraternity and walked on and made the UT golf team as a freshman.

Following a fun-filled first semester, while at home for Christmas break, Cary’s “day of reckoning” arrived when his grades came by mail, and his father was the first to see them. GPA 2.6. Cary remembered his father calmly approaching him with, “Let’s walk outside.” His father continued, “So you pledged a fraternity and played golf. Why don’t we quit wasting my money and your time? You just come on home, get a job, and you can play all the golf you want.” These words from his father and perhaps the words of a favorite quote by Winston Churchill – “Success is not final, Failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts” – had a profound effect on Cary. He returned to UT that spring and “went a bit too far in the other direction.” He took extra hours in the summer and graduated with a BBA in Marketing in only three years.

*Cary is looking forward to duck season when he can hunt with his new Lab, “Gus.”*

Both of Cary’s parents were very civic-minded – with Dr. Patterson focusing on education, and Mrs. Patterson offering her time and expertise to local charities such as Opportunities, Inc. His father served for over 20 years on the board of Texarkana College and later served two terms on the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB). During that time, he became aware that no junior college in the United States had an accredited nursing program. He made it his mission to gain approval for such a program at Texarkana College – a goal he and others accomplished. Dr. Patterson was also one of many who worked tirelessly with Senator Akin to establish East Texas State University-Texarkana on the same campus. “My family has deep roots with both Texarkana College and Texas A&M University-Texarkana (formerly ETSU-T), and we are proud to support both.” The Pattersons’ service and support are commemorated with buildings named for their family on both the Texarkana College and Texas A&M University-Texarkana campuses and a building is named in honor of Mrs. Dorothy Sue Patterson (Cary Patterson’s mother) on the Opportunities, Inc. campus.

Like his parents, when Cary Patterson sees a need, in his quiet, “behind-the-scenes” way, he finds a way to meet that need – whether personally or by influencing others to join him – without any expectation or desire for recognition.

Just as the commitment to civic service runs deep with the Pattersons, so does a deep commitment to family. Cary’s admiration is obvious when he speaks of his wife, Lois. “We met while in school in Austin,” he fondly recalled. “We lived in the same apartment complex and had our first date late in our first semester. We fell in love the second year, and from then on it was just the two of us.” Following graduation, Cary entered law school at St. Mary’s in San Antonio, and they were married during Christmas break on December 29.

*Chad, Cary and Ty enjoyed watching the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals play during the 2019 World Series game, where the Astros had home-field advantage.*

“While I was in law school, Lois took a job as a case worker with the Texas Department of Welfare. She was the breadwinner for our family through law school, and we lived on a Texaco credit card (from his father for “emergencies”) and about $200 per month,” he shared. “At law school graduation, I was instructed by my father to cut up that Texaco card as I crossed the stage!”

After they started their family, Cary credits Lois with being “the rock of the family.” She cared for the children, coordinated all of their extra-curricular activities, oversaw their homework, and saw to their every need. “It was amazing … everything was in order when I got home. Because of Lois, I got to spend quality time with our boys in the evenings before their bedtime.”

The Pattersons’ sons, Ty and Chad, are a source of deep pride. Accomplished in their own right, Ty is a partner in several automotive dealerships and auctions, and Chad is a partner with Eagle Dentistry. Lois and Cary delight in their grandchildren – Ty’s four: Evelyn (17 in August), Jacks (16), Martha (12), and Murray (2), and Chad’s three: Hunter (14), Hinsley (10), and Barrett (7). Like their parents and grandparents, Ty and Chad are very civic-minded. They have a friendly brotherly rivalry when it comes to favorite family activities such as hunting and fishing, and they thoroughly enjoy time spent with their dad in these pursuits. “Ours is not just a father/son relationship,” Cary stated. “We are great friends!” He added that being a good father is a balancing act – being a disciplinarian on one hand while building that friendship to garner trust so your children know they can come to you and count on you.

A profile of Cary Patterson would not offer a complete picture of the man without addressing his skill in the practice of law. For a man who wasn’t sure whether to pursue an MBA or attend law school after earning his undergraduate degree, it seems he definitely made a wise decision. He began his career with Young & Patton for one year and then joined the firm of Atchley, Russell, Waldrop & Hlavinka where he represented insurance companies and corporate defendants in cases such as product liability. He credits the experience gained in dealing with decision makers at insurance companies and general counsels for corporations as invaluable in preparing him for his career on the plaintiff’s side of the equation. While with Atchley, Russell, he tried and won a case against a quite formidable opponent for whom he had immense professional respect, Mr. Harold Nix. Not long after that case, Harold asked him to lunch and proposed that he join his firm. After talking with trusted colleagues at his current firm who encouraged him to pursue this great opportunity, Cary knew his future was in partnership with Harold.

From this point forward, Cary’s cases became the flip side of the legal pendulum – representing injured parties such as in asbestos and breast implant litigation. Though Nix was already quite successful with a stellar case load, the firm grew from an East Texas firm to a bigger statewide firm. Soon, the case for which Nix, Patterson & Roach is best known was presented to them by then Texas Attorney General Dan Morales. In 1996, the State was assembling a team of five firms to take on the tobacco industry to recoup related Medicaid and Medicare expenses for the state and had selected their firm as one of this elite group. Each firm was required to put up $2 million toward a pool to fund the expenses associated with preparing for trial by fall 1998. The State’s team of 45-60 attorneys would be going up against the powerful tobacco industry as defendants with their force of 250-280 attorneys.

*Time spent with his sons is important to Cary. Here, he is pheasant hunting in Kimball, South Dakota, with Ty and Chad.*

Driven by the strategy to file in federal court and include RICO/federal racketeering charges, the State’s team sought the least crowded federal court in the state for a quick trial. At the time, Judge David Folsom was fairly new to the bench and had the smallest backlog in the state, so the suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

While trial preparations were originally headquartered in Austin, as the trial date drew nearer, the decision was made to move operations to Texarkana. A large available space was rented and quickly outfitted for 24/7 work. A cafeteria was put in place for the team working around the clock against the looming trial deadline. Those involved, including Cary worked seven days a week and took no time off for two years with the exception of Christmas. And the expense pool established by the five firms – $10 million – was depleted in four months. When all was said and done, the total expense pool was approximately $45 million. “We, literally, bet our firm on our ability to prevail in this case,” Cary stated.

When deciding whether to take the case in the beginning, Nix and Patterson agreed it was the right thing to do. But for Cary, it was for a more personal reason that he was so determined to expose the tobacco industry’s harmful practices. Both of his grandparents (his father’s parents) had been smokers and had died from lung cancer when Dr. Patterson was only 14 years old.

After two years of grueling work to prepare, being the target of listening devices planted in their offices, having tapes of mock trial preparation transcripts stolen from an employee’s home in the middle of the night, the East Texas version of “Deep Throat” (a Tyler physician who served as an expert witness and outsmarted the tobacco industry’s representative by taping threats made to him), the State’s team had done what they set out to do. They were prepared to bring to light the marketing practices of the tobacco industry to lure young college and high school age students to smoke by providing free cigarettes on campuses. Much more crucial was the evidence they had uncovered regarding the deceptive practices the industry was using to give the public a false sense of health and safety with the use of cigarette filters. Obviously, the tobacco industry knew it had met its match with this formidable team – just before jury selection was to begin, they agreed to settle. Cary Patterson was integral in working out the settlement – the largest settlement in American jurisprudence at the time - $17.6 billion. Cary summed up the experience in these words … It was like walking on the edge of a razor blade for two years – dangerous but fun!

The advice Harold Nix once gave to Cary Patterson rang true – and is still the best advice Cary says he’s ever been given. “He told me I wasn’t thinking big enough – think bigger! Now isn’t that something, coming from a man from a town of 2,600 people (Daingerfield, Texas)? It’s ironic, but in hindsight, his vision created our 35 years of success.” Since the tobacco suit, their firm has also been sought for other high profile cases such as representing the State of Florida in the British Petroleum oil spill litigation and the State of Oklahoma in opioid litigation.

Cary is still very much involved with the firm – though he doesn’t try cases. He handles mediation on the bigger cases and is integral in the selection of cases the firm agrees to take. “I’ll stay around as long as I can be of help,” he humbly stated. “You can only play so much golf or fish so many spots.”

With a bit more time to focus on family and community, Cary enjoys sports with his sons and grandchildren. They were able to attend the World Series when the Houston Astros (of which he is an owner and board member) played. He has been instrumental in establishing REDI (Regional Economic Development, Inc.) to ignite our community and attract new businesses and industry. His eyes brighten when he speaks of his beloved community and its many assets such as its citizens, intersecting interstates, rail service, abundant water, higher education (Texarkana College, A&M-Texarkana, and University of Arkansas-Texarkana), medical facilities, and airport upgrades on the horizon. “It’s exciting to see everyone pulling together as one and embracing the idea that a rising tide lifts all boats. We’ve taken the first step to raise the tide!”

For a man who has been honored with countless accolades – the most recent being the C.E. Palmer award – Cary Patterson measures success not in cases in the “win column” or what has been acquired. He simply hopes that he and Lois have raised children and grandchildren who are productive, successful, kind, generous, and good civic citizens.

With the examples they have been given, how could they be anything else?

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