By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — Longtime teacher Glenn Patterson made it his mission each year to provide whatever extra help he could to a student in need.
Maybe it was a child grappling with the death of a parent, or a pregnant teenager in need of support.
“Glenn never would want anyone to know, but every year he was teaching he would take $100 and figure out what was needed,” said Mary Patterson, his wife of 48 years.
Mary and Glenn would drive to housing projects and homes across the city to deliver the gifts. She set a limit on how much he could give.
“He was always giving away something,” she said. “He would’ve given away everything.”
Glenn Patterson, who built a legacy of generosity as an educator and mentor to kids across the city, died on Sunday after suffering a heart attack in his home. He was 67. Funeral arrangements are pending.
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Patterson’s selflessness was evident in everything from what he wore to the vehicle he drove.
Kids at the Blackhawk Boys & Girls Club, where he served as director the past two years, would often tease him about one of his trademark fashion accessories. He told them he wore the fanny pack for comfort, his youngest son Clint said, but it was actually the best way for him to keep quarters and dollars on hand so he could quickly hand them out to a child who needed a snack or drink from a vending machine.
He also continued to drive a mini van long after his four children — Cory, Kevin, Coffey and Clint — grew up and moved out of the home. He kept it just in case he needed it to help the youth he served.
“He hasn’t had enough kids that live in the house to warrant having a mini-van in almost 20 years, but it’s still useful to him,” said Clint Patterson, who is 29.
Glenn Patterson was a physical education teacher, coach and school administrator for roughly three decades in Rockford and then Wisconsin. He took on the role at the Blackhawk Boys & Girls Club in retirement, and there he implemented an academic and social and emotional support program that was already paying dividends in helping students improve their test scores, Mary said.
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He also often hired troubled youth to help keep them off the streets, said Tamica Fricks, teen director at the YMCA of Rock River Valley.
“He saved a lot of kids,” she said. “He fought for all youth. He really meant a lot to a lot of kids.”
Fricks said Patterson was the person to see if you had a problem, or needed any guidance in general.
“He was a leader, a great mentor and a great coach. He was someone that everybody loved,” she said. “I’m forever grateful for him. He is truly going to be missed.”
For Patterson, working at the Blackhawk Boys & Girls Club was a return to his roots. He grew up in the nearby Blackhawk Courts housing development, where he was raised by a single mother of five.
He later found a mentor in Jim Flodin, who spent 36 years with the Boys & Girls Club before becoming director of the Patriots Gateway Community Center.
“I never really wanted to be a teacher,” Glenn once told his wife, she said. “I wanted to be Jim Flodin. That’s who I wanted to be.”
Flodin had often said his work to help others was a form of of giving back in honor of those who helped him. Patterson held the same belief, and became father-figure and cheerleader for countless youth.
“He had so many more kids than just the four of us,” Clint Patterson said. “I still have someone I regard as a brother who I would have never hung out with had my dad not reached out to him.”
It was common for children at the club to call him dad, grandpa or Papa P. After growing up without his dad, Patterson made sure kids knew they had him in their corner.
“He knew, because he experienced it, that these kids needed what he didn’t have: an adult male who would mentor them,” his brother Greg Patterson said. “But mostly an adult who would care for them and care about them.”
Giye Filipowicz, whose dad died in 2004, said Glenn became a second father to her.
“Not even two seconds after meeting him he was treating me like his daughter,” she said.
But that was true for many kids who called him grandpa or talked to him like he was a family member, Filipowicz said.
“I never met someone who, as strong as I feel my connection is with him, I can guarantee you every person feels that way,” she said. “I don’t understand how one person can have such deep, strong connections with so many people, in that it impacted their lives.”
Glenn and Mary often brought other kids on family vacations with their own children.
“He wanted them to come and enjoy what he had,” Mary said. “I don’t know how many kids we dragged on vacations.”
He did the same thing around the holidays.
“I’ve had 60 people here on Thanksgiving before,” Mary said. “They drew numbers at the door to see if they were going to sit in the first seating or the second seating or third or fourth.”
“It was a big deal for him to see them smile or see them happy.”
Patterson understood the importance of giving kids a second chance. As a freshman at West High School he was suspended for burning the curtains in an auditorium. He was forced to transfer to East, where he played football, met Mary and started to take his education and future more seriously, his brother said.
As the director at Blackhawk, he had a passion for keeping kids on the right track. He would meet students at their buses in the morning, shake their hands and encourage them before the start of school, Mary said. Back at the club, they had to do homework before they could play.
“He always said that the kids don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care,” Mary said.
He motivated kids with positive reinforcement, and was often the biggest cheerleader in the gym for various sports events.
“He brought the best out of everybody, and he expected the best,” said Cory Patterson, his oldest child.
“He had an almost singular ability to connect with people in a positive way,” Greg Patterson said.
Filipowicz saw that in his interactions with her 5-year-old daughter, Tessa. He would cheer wildly as the child attempted her first cartwheels.
“She did cartwheels for Glenn, like 50 at a time, because he would clap,” Mary Patterson said.
Patterson was also a loyal Green Bay Packers fan, and you could often find him dressed head to toe in the team’s green and gold. He was wearing his Packers shoes when he died, and paramedics had to cut a Packers shirt off him as they attempted to save him.
He was also still built like a football player. He stood 6-foot tall and was a muscular 250 pounds. He lifted weights and exercised daily.
“He was strong as an ox, the guy had 20-inch biceps with hardly any fat on them. I bet he was no higher than 12% body fat,” Clint said.
His stature gave him a commanding presence with youth. He was direct and no-nonsense when needed and showed his softer side when required, too.
“He had this commanding presence,” Clint said. “As big as that was, he had an even bigger heart.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas or Instagram @thekevinhaas.