Alumnus David Pattenden (BA'67, MA'69, LLB'71, MEd'74, LLD'03) has a long list of degrees from Queen’s – five to be exact. An even longer list is the number of times David has given back to the Queen’s and Kingston communities. He is the former CEO of the Ontario Medical Association, a board member at both Kingston General Hospital and Hotel Dieu, and has taught at both Queen’s University and St. Lawrence College. As a member of the W. J. Henderson Foundation Board, he helps direct funds to health-related charities. He also served on many Queen’s organizations, including Queen’s Council and the Board of Trustees.
His dedicated volunteerism with Queen’s and Kingston is the reason he is this year’s recipient of the Padre Laverty Award. The honour is bestowed by the Kingston Branch of the Queen’s University Alumni Association for outstanding service to Queen's University or jointly to the Queen’s and Kingston communities.
It’s been an impressive career for someone who admits he came from a poor Irish-Canadian background and never thought much about attending university while growing up.
“I felt very much like I wanted to contribute to the system that allowed me to change my life entirely. You realize along the way that you need to help others too,” says David.
David took time out of his busy day to talk about his community involvement and provide some advice to other volunteers.
Q: You have made extensive contributions to the Queen’s and Kingston communities, where do you think the largest impact has been made and where is there work still to be done?
A: I taught at Queen’s and made a contribution teaching and that’s a bit of a give-back as you don’t do the part-time teaching for the money. The most outstanding contribution though is sitting on the board of the W.J. Henderson Foundation. It is the most rewarding because you get to pick the area that needs help instantly and you finance it. It makes you feel good for the people that benefit from that assistance.
Q: What is the greatest part of your work as a W. J. Henderson Foundation Board member?
A: It’s primarily identifying the projects we are going to finance. I know so many people on campus in the healthcare and the medical side and a great percentage of our money goes to research and health care projects. That’s because the system here kept Judge W.J. Henderon alive and functional for a number of years. The judge for example was one of the original people to receive a pacemaker (and he has orthopaedic problems) and because of that, we tend to have a focus on health care. I use my personal relationships with many professors, administrators and doctors to discover what projects we would like to support. I call us a boutique foundation as opposed to a mainstream one. We look for projects that have an immediate clinical and research impact. We invest in things that have clinical relevance right away.
Q: How has your time at Queen’s prepared you for such an impressive track record of support and dedication for your community?
A: It has a lot to do with where I come from. I come from a very poor, Irish-Canadian background and the thought of going to university wasn’t even on my mind in my family. When I decided to go that route, I felt very much like I wanted to contribute to the system that allowed me to change my life entirely. You realize along the way that you need to help others too.
Q: What advice would you give to other community members looking to get involved?
A: You don’t get meaningfully involved unless you’re highly motivated. You have to have that motivation and you need a reason in your life to spend so much time and effort. I have spent hours and days with the foundation and I couldn’t have done it if I didn’t have that motivation in me. For everyone who helps out, they have a different motivation as to why they do it.
Q: What’s next for you at Queen’s and in the Kingston community?
A: The W.J. Henderson Foundation is going to consume most of my time. I just got on the Hotel Dieu Hospital Board as well. So between that board and the foundation and some other Queen’s campus communities, that’s what I’ll be doing. And you can really put people together when you’ve been around as long as I have in so many different roles. You can really help an organization by putting the right people together at the table.
Join David at the Padre Laverty Award Dinner on May 28 in Kingston. Registration is available online.
