Robert H. Patterson Jr.

Robert H. Patterson Jr.
Portrait of Patterson, c. 1980s
Born	Robert Hobson Patterson Jr. (1927-01-30)January 30, 1927 Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Died	July 12, 2012(2012-07-12) (aged 85) Richmond, Virginia, U.S.
Education	Virginia Military Institute (BA) University of Virginia (LLB)
Occupation	Lawyer
Political party	Republican
Spouses	Luise Franklin Wyatt ​ ​ (m. 1952; died 2001)​ Anne Marie Whittemore ​ ​ (m. 2003)​
Children	3
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Robert Hobson Patterson Jr. (January 30, 1927 – July 12, 2012) was an American lawyer. He served as managing partner and chair of the executive committee of McGuireWoods, was president of the Virginia State Bar, and was a member – later president – of the board of visitors of his undergraduate alma mater, the Virginia Military Institute. He was the lead attorney for VMI in United States v. Virginia, though Theodore Olson argued the case before the Supreme Court of the United States.

Politically a conservative, he was an assistant to Governor Thomas B. Stanley in 1956. He was later the Henrico County chair of Richard Nixon's presidential campaign in 1968 and was the state chair of Harry F. Byrd Jr.'s U.S. Senate campaign in 1970.^[1] In 1988, he was floated as a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate against Democratic former governor Chuck Robb.^[2]