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In Memoriam: Joseph Patron

Patron Family

Joseph Patron passed away February 14, 2021. He is survived by his two children, Elizabeth and Joseph.

More commonly known as Joe Patron, Joe was many things. He was a pioneer in the truest sense of its meaning. He left his hometown of Stockton, CA in the early 80’s and headed to Dutch Harbor, AK by chance. He never shied away from a challenge. He had many professions in his life. Working since he was a child to help support his family, picking fruit. He operated Christmas tree farms, owned a restaurant, owned a taxi service, drove limousines, built elevators, and fished the Bering Sea for 20 years. He was a real man. No foo foo, no bull. He told you what he thought and if you didn’t like it, too bad. Absolutely no filter existed on the man. He was a lover. He loved his children. He loved to work. The challenge of life kept him going. Gave him a purpose. He was the best father any child could ask for. If he had a dollar to give, he would give it. If he had a dollar to spend, consider it spent.  Money management was not even a thing to Joe. He liked cheap cars and discount foods. Drive them till they die. Drive them till they die. Buy it because it’s cheap and give it away. If you made it past the unrefined exterior, he got to know a caring and compassionate man beneath. Anyone who knew Joe, knew he was a good man. What made him so good was the motivation behind it. He wasn’t a good man because he necessarily wanted to be a good man. He just was. He could not be any other way. If someone needed what he had, he would give it to them. He did what needed to be done. He fought for the little man. He did not like the police. He really did not like the government telling him what to do. He was a storyteller, and he had stories to tell. They were the types of stories you read in fictional books. Near death, near starving and nearly impossible to believe. But true. Stories you could listen to again and again. They illuminated the defining moments in his life that made him the man he was. They invited you into a memory that was reserved in a part of his mind that would always stay alive, so long as he told his story. Now that he has passed, it is up to us to keep these stories alive and to honor his life in the truest sense. Acknowledging his life as if he were still with us because in a wild, indescribable yet knowing way, he still is and always will be.

A memorial for Joe will be held July 24that 2:00 PM at his home in Dutch Harbor, AK. We ask that you bring your memories and a light heart as we remember Joe the way he wanted to be remembered.