Marty Patterson’s love for baseball continued throughout his life
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"Baseball, like life, can throw you a lot of curve balls," Marty Patterson once observed of the sport he played from dawn to dusk growing up in Fort Dodge and continued to love through his 81 years of life.
One of life's "curve balls" for Patterson came in the form of Parkinson's disease, which he fought bravely for 12 years before it finally took his life Aug. 7 at the Folkestone senior living community in Wayzata, in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota. His baseball glove and other prized baseball possessions were at his bedside when he took his last breath.
"I've had a few screwballs come my way, too," he said in a 2025 Messenger interview. "To continue, you try other options and make adjustments. Talents are discovered and it takes hard work and strategy, but also caring, love and respect. Lifelong lessons still apply today. I face ups and downs, some wins, some losses. It's one day, even minutes at a time. I find joy in each day, count it a home run and give thanks."
Through Patterson's 12-year journey with Parkinson's, his wife Laurann said, "Marty seldom complained and his faith was reflected in the life he lived. He was a good listener, had a ready smile to greet others. He was loving and ready with quick wit. He had an uncanny way of bringing optimism and finding joy in each day. And that to him counted as a home run."
Appropriately, the Celebration of Life held two weeks later for Patterson -- a lifelong educator -- had a baseball theme. Food stations for the 250 who attended included Ballpark Bites, Playoff Pie & Scoops, and Bullpen Beverages. There were boxes of Cracker Jacks for everyone. And at the end of the service, everyone sang, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." His sisters Peggy Rice and Sharon Lutz were at the ceremony as well as eight nieces and nephews. (He is also survived by a brother Larry and sister Elizabeth Johnson and was preceded in death by his parents, brother Paul and sister Sue.)
The Patterson name is synonymous with baseball in Fort Dodge. Marty's first cousin -- and his first Little League baseball coach -- was Jerry Patterson, who formed the Demons youth team of the 1950s and 1960s and in 1967 founded Patterson Field, the city's first public baseball park where thousands of youngsters have played the National Pastime to this day. Jerry died in 2012 at the age of 74.
Marty Patterson was the fourth of seven children of Luella and Ken Patterson. His father worked for National Gypsum. His love for baseball began in the summer of 1956 with a group of 10-, 11- and 12-year-old boys who played pickup baseball at Butler Field. These boys became the core of the original Butler Demons baseball team coached by Jerry Patterson. A year later, they became the Fort Dodge Demons.
"We were poor boys, from the south side, from Butler School," Patterson said in a Messenger Spotlight on the Demons in 2025. "I pitched barefooted my first year because my parents couldn't afford spikes for me. We were seven kids and the folks had all they could do to get regular shoes on our feet. It didn't bother me much because I had a pretty good toe grip on the mound. But I did get spikes the following year."
Patterson was a talented pitcher and hitter who later played for his cousin Jerry with the Fort Dodge Merchants semi-pro team and then for the Dodgers (where he was first-team All-State), Fort Dodge Community College (now Iowa Central Community College) and the University of South Dakota. At 6-foot-2, he also played basketball at FDSH and also competed in football and basketball at FDCC.
Tom Goodman, his teammate in the Dodgers' 1962 season under legendary Coach Ed McNeil, remembered him as a "terrific pitcher" who also excelled at hitting.
"One time he hit a pitch over the centerfield wall at Dodger Stadium, which is over 400 feet," Goodman said. "The only other Dodger to do that was Billy Goodman - it was a big deal. Ed told me years later that those two long shots over the centerfield wall were the only two that he had seen in his long coaching career."
Patterson served as interim head baseball coach at St. Edmond High School for the 1967 summer season and two years later was an assistant under McNeil when the Dodgers won their only state baseball championship.
He was scouted by the Philadelphia Phillies in high school and after graduating in 1962, at 17 years of age, was offered a baseball scholarship to Iowa State University. But after beginning the fall semester at Ames and trying to balance baseball with classes and a work schedule to afford college, he decided to return to Fort Dodge to attend FDCC, starting there in the spring semester of 1963 and immediately playing spring baseball. He did well and two years later, he landed a baseball scholarship at the University of South Dakota where, in one season, he led the North Central Conference in hitting.
While attending community college, he met the love of his life, Laurann Kling, who had graduated from Cedar Valley High School in Somers. There, she played on state tournament teams as a 5-foot-9 basketball forward (in the 6-on-6 girls' basketball era) and as a pitcher in softball.
"We first met at Fort Dodge Community College in American History class," she said. "Marty's baseball buddy set us up on a blind date. There wasn't much attraction for each other as we were both rebounding from broken relationships. On that first 'date', Marty was sure he had seen me before. After quizzing me for a while, he discovered that it was a year previously at a sectional basketball tourney at Fort Dodge where he had seen me playing. There were four teams playing that night with six girls on each team. I played for Cedar Valley. This was the half court, two-dribble era of girls' basketball. How could he remember?"
After three years of dating, they were married in 1966 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Burnside and together taught in the Fort Dodge Public Schools for six years. Patterson taught math to seventh and eighth graders and coached seven sports. Laurann taught kindergarten and first grade.
"Our first years of married life, we lived in the country on my folks' farm and drove 15 miles into Fort Dodge to teach every day," Laurann said. "Marty loved the farm because he could take hitting practice aiming the ball into the cornfields. He also was known for making a putting green, digging a hole in the yard and using an empty tin can for the lining of the hole. Marty was a pretty good golfer. He could really drive the ball, but baseball was still his game."
Ed McNeil was a mentor for Patterson "in developing a strong work ethic, solid principles and leadership skills, and the foundations of baseball of good sportsmanship, fairness and discipline," Laurann said. "As a fellow coach, Ed taught Marty to practice your faith, live what you believe, show respect, integrity and honesty."
A close relationship developed between their families. Sharon McNeil, Ed's wife, cared for Kristen, Marty and Laurann's baby daughter, while they were teaching. Ed and Sharon are godparents to Mindy, their second daughter.
Today, Kristen Terry is a television/major event producer, staging director and choreographer with TallOrder Productions in Concord, North Carolina. She has won an Emmy. Her work over 30 years includes high-profile productions involving events such as the Super Bowl, Olympics, and Academy, Emmy and Grammy Awards. Kristen and her husband are parents of three children.
Mindy Reid has enjoyed a 26-year career in financial services as a private wealth advisor with BlueStem Wealth Partners in Minnetonka, Minnesota. She is passionate about financial education and teaches personal finance every morning to high school students at Wayzata High School. Mindy and her husband are parents of two children.
Jerry Patterson may have been Marty's coach, but he was a cousin first, Laurann Patterson said, "and their off-field shenanigans developed a forever bond. There was after-practice chattering that continued with stories and jokes for hours. Marty would tell about the time Jerry thought it would be fun to sneak up on 'lovers' parked at Oleson Park. It backfired as the driver in the car opened his door just as Jerry and Marty were coming up from behind. They took off running faster than either of them thought possible."
In 1972, Marty learned from longtime Fort Dodge friend Jim Taylor of an opening with the newly established Hennepin Technical Center (now Hennepin Technical College) in Minneapolis, where Taylor worked in human resources. Taylor was a fellow 1962 FDSH graduate who played football for the Dodgers and married 1963 FDSH graduate Jan Allen. They and the Pattersons have been lifelong friends, Taylor said, and Marty, a part-time carpenter, built one of the Taylors' homes.
It wasn't an easy decision for Laurann and Marty - they'd be leaving behind their families and friends who all lived in the Fort Dodge area. He accepted the offer, and the family - which by then included 3-year-old daughter Kristen - left for Minnesota where he took a job writing math curriculum and teaching math at the public technical school. It was a good fit. He worked his way up into administration to become dean of students and retired in 2008 as the interim president after a career of 36 years with the college.
There, during the 1972-73 school year, he met Russ Fryer, a counselor at the college who would become a special friend for the rest of his life.
"We soon realized in our friendship that outside of the love we had for our families, we both loved baseball and most other sports," Fryer said. "That friendship spanned 50-plus years.
"At that time ('70s) I played on some very good athletic teams, so I asked Marty if he was interested in playing softball with us. Little did I know how skilled he was on the ball field. He could have played any position. I also knew nothing about his athletic feats in Fort Dodge. He immediately became our shortstop and was selected to the All-Star game for many years. He was never a guy to gloat nor was he interested in getting credit for a victory. He just so enjoyed the game and the guys he played with."
At work, Fryer said, "Marty was a wonderful educator. After teaching math, he became a dean at the college. The staff he worked with considered him 'The Super Dean.' Marty eventually became the college president. He was an outstanding leader and a very kind person who was respected by all staff. The special memories that Marty left with each of us will remain forever."
His coaching skills were put to use in girls' softball as their daughters were growing up. Patterson coached both girls' softball teams to winning seasons and tournament victories.
Daughter Mindy said he "was a patient and selfless softball coach who taught me the importance of mastering the fundamentals, practicing with purpose, being a positive and encouraging teammate, and always giving my best on the field. He made every practice and game fun, while helping me develop a love for the game that has stayed with me."
Her sister Kristen recalled a favorite memory of softball practice when he coached her middle-school team:
"Our team was pretty inexperienced, so my dad had to teach all the basics. My favorite practice of all time was when he told us to wear our oldest pants or jeans that could get destroyed and gloves for sliding practice. My dad showed us all how to slide, on the grass first. We all watched him demonstrate over and over again. Then we all tried it. I was engrossed watching our super inexperienced team try and learn the skills to perfect their slide. It’s a lot of coordination…which leg leads, which leg tucks, where the hands go! We eventually moved over to the infield. By the end of the practice, we were 'getting it'. Not only did we learn a critical skill, we had a team-bonding experience with laughter, conversation and lots and lots of grass stains and dirt. I will always remember watching him do the slide so effortlessly and how that was my favorite practice of all time.
Many who played for Ed McNeil would relate to Kristen's assessment of her father's coaching style, learned in large part through playing for and coaching with McNeil:
"Having my dad as a coach taught me lessons that I appreciate more as an adult. He insisted our team have a neat and uniform appearance. Everyone had their shirts tucked in, a belt and matching socks. He said the first impression is about looking like a team and acting like a team. It shows that we are focused and prepared to play ball. I carry this into my professional life, and how I expect my teammates on projects to pay attention to first impressions, being put together. I hold them to a higher standard because my dad instilled the importance of the standard being set before you step onto the field."
Laurann Patterson resumed her teaching career after their girls were in school and taught English as a Second Language for 21 years in the Hopkins School District. She earned a master's degree in that field from Hamline University in St. Paul. In 1966, she received a bachelor's degree in education from Drake University.
Diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 2014, Patterson handled his battle with the disease with great dignity, Fryer said.
"I visited Marty every other week and not once did he ever complain about his situation," he said. "His strong faith, his family and friends got him through each day. At his service there were a lot of pictures of Marty playing baseball from little league to town ball. Marty always had on display in his room at Folkestone his old baseball glove. I believe that glove brought back many wonderful memories for him."
With Marty Patterson's death, one might believe that he's now reunited with his first cousin Jerry and continuing to play the game they both so loved on a heavenly version of Fort Dodge's Patterson Field - of which, Jerry once said:
"As for my life after life, the Holy Grail of my hopes, dreams and prayers is that if I do make it to Heaven, that our good Lord will give me the resources to build an exact replica of Patterson Field somewhere in his magnificent kingdom. If that does happen, 'I'll see you again at the ballpark.'"