Howard Rollin Patch

Howard Rollin Patch was born in Lake Linden, Michigan, in 1889 to Emily I White and Maurice B. Patch. Patch attended Hobart College in Geneva, New York, until he graduated in 1910. Patch completed his graduate work first at Harvard University, where he received his A.M. in 1912 and his Ph.D. in 1915. In 1924, he received an honorary doctorate of Letters from Hobart College. Patch worked for a number of years as an instructor and lecturer for Harvard (1912-1916), Radcliffe (1915-1916), and Bryn Mawr (1916-1919), before coming to Smith College to teach English in 1919, where he taught medieval literature. At Smith, Patch wrote a large number of articles and books, becoming one of the leading Chaucer scholars in the world. He was a member of the Medieval Academy of America, the Modern Languages Association, Phi Beta Kappa, the Modern Humanities Research Association, the Dante Society, and the Society for the Study of Medieval languages and Literature. Patch married Helen K. Patch, with whom he had four children: Howard R. Patch Jr, Robert K. Patch, Priscilla E. Patch, and Mary (Patch) Coit. He was very active in the Catholic Church, and became a Tertiary of the Order of St. Dominic. He retired in 1957 and died six years later in 1963 in Wellesley, Massachusetts. [https://findingaids.smith.edu/repositories/4/resources/1469 DJackson 4/1/2021]