An English major, Patrick spent his time at Illinois College writing short stories and had his first story published while he was a sophomore. He also served on the English department student advisory board, as editor for the campus literary magazine Forte and participated in the Illinois College Undergraduate Conference Of Writers (ICUCOW).

Patrick made a lasting impact on the faculty in the English department, showing promise as a writer from the first English course he took. “Having taught for over thirty years, I’ve noticed a pattern where once a decade or so there’s a student that you see and think, ‘they’re going to break through as a writer,’” Professor of English Nicholas Capo said. “That was Patrick.”

After graduating, Patrick remained in Jacksonville and worked at Perma-Bound Books. During his free time, he wrote and published horror stories through various publications such as NOOK Books, Sanitarium Magazine, Trysts of Fate and The Nightmare Collective: An Anthology of Short Horror Stories. He was generous with his time and would return to campus to speak with current English majors about the craft of writing.

In an unpublished interview, Ellie Herman ’22 spoke with Patrick about his experiences as a writer and how his time at IC influenced him. “The courses I took at IC exposed me to writers and styles I wouldn’t have discovered on my own. As a writer, that opened up new genres to experiment with, styles to learn from, and even clarified what I don’t want to emulate. The reading and writing courses also strengthened my editing skills, which have been especially valuable as I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone to edit an anthology with a publisher I’ve worked with before. All of it has helped me move forward, step by step, in a new direction.”

Patrick’s debut short story collection “Ghosts Will Haunt My Bones,” posthumously published with Baynam Books Press, is available to order online.