Francesca (Fanny) Patterson remembers playing in Laurel Creek as a child with her siblings when her parents worked on campus in the 1960s: “There were not so many geese then!” she recalls. Those parents were E Palmer Patterson II and Nancy-Lou Patterson: two professors whose awe-inspiring energy wove important threads into the story of the brand-new University of Waterloo.
To help keep their work alive on Waterloo’s campus, last year Fanny established the Dr. E Palmer Patterson II Graduate Scholarship in Indigenous Histories and endowed the longstanding Nancy-Lou Patterson Award for Works on Paper.
The Pattersons left Seattle for Waterloo when Palmer accepted a position teaching history at St. Jerome’s College in 1962. At Waterloo, Nancy-Lou quickly found her feet and in 1964, became the first curator of the Gallery of the Performing Arts in the Modern Languages Building; by 1968, she had founded Waterloo’s Department of Fine Arts. Shortly after, Palmer published the first comprehensive academic history of Indigenous peoples in Canada, and the following year Nancy-Lou published one of the first surveys of Indigenous art in Canada.
Fanny recalls her parents “endlessly discussing their work”: getting ready in the mornings, sharing lunch on campus. Both Pattersons cared deeply about social justice.
Palmer spent decades studying the Nisga’a Nation’s first contact with missionaries in British Columbia. He also wrote school textbooks on Indigenous histories and led a teach-in in protest of violence during the Biafran War. Nancy-Lou was a beloved mentor with a striking presence. Over the years, she taught the 100-level Introduction to World Art to thousands of students, ensuring that Fine Arts had an impact on the wider campus. She published on a wide range of subjects, including Mennonite art, Indigenous art and the Inklings. They retired together in 1992. In 1993, Nancy-Lou became the first woman to be granted the title Distinguished Professor Emerita at Waterloo. Today, her sacred and secular public works in stained glass and fabric can still be seen all over Waterloo Region, including the stunning stained glass windows in Conrad Grebel University College Chapel.
“Nancy Lou Patterson was my advisor, and because of her I went on to complete my fourth year and then to teachers’ college,” said George Turzanski BA ’73. “It changed my life and I will be showing my appreciation by supporting the Fine Arts department."
Fanny hopes the two awards can help to continue that legacy of changing lives by supporting the study of Indigenous histories and fine arts at Waterloo in the names of her two extraordinary parents. “You do it from love, and it feels like a present you can give them,” says Fanny. “It’s a way to celebrate and honour my parents by helping to continue the work they did. You put it out there, and then you get to have the fun of seeing what happens next.”