When Patterson was 13, his widowed mother moved to San Francisco, California, while he remained at Honolulu Military Academy.
In 1934, in reaction to the Air Mail scandal and the departure of Johnson, Patterson became the company's president at the age of 34.
He gave his approval to hire eight nurses to work as flight attendants on a three-month trial basis.
[2] Patterson's daughter, Patty, briefly worked for American Airlines as a flight attendant before her marriage rendered her ineligible.
[7] Near the end of his life, he was honored with the creation of the William A. Patterson Distinguished Chair in Transportation[8] through the gifts of more than 12,000 individual and corporate donors.