His father and mother were both completely deaf as a result of childhood illness.
[1] Paterson obtained his undergraduate and graduate training at Ohio State University.
[2] He became an instructor in psychology at the University of Kansas, where he met his wife, Margaret Young.
During World War I he served as Chief Psychological Examiner and a captain in the Sanitary Corp of the US Army.
[2] After the war he joined the Scott Company, an early type of psychological consulting organizations.