Robert S. Patterson retired in July 2003 after serving for eleven years as the dean of BYU’s David O. McKay School of Education. Prior to coming to BYU in 1991, Bob was a faculty member at the University of Alberta in Canada for twenty-six years, the last eight of which he served as dean of the Faculty of Education. He obtained his BA and MA from the University of Alberta and his PhD from Michigan State University. The University of Lethbridge granted him an honorary doctoral degree in 1989. He has coauthored or coedited six books and has published numerous book chapters and articles on teacher education and the history of Canadian education. Since his retirement, Bob and his wife, Belva, have been serving as a senior volunteer couple at BYU’s Jerusalem Center for Near Eastern Studies. He has served as a bishop, counselor in a stake presidency, and stake patriarch. In Israel he is an education consultant, a counselor in the Israel District presidency, and an active patriarch in the Israel District. The Pattersons have four sons.
