Longtime president and CEO of Pioneer Clubs, CIU Alumna, with the Lord

Longtime president and CEO of Pioneer Clubs, CIU Alumna, with the Lord

From CIU's 1956 yearbook, "The Finial"

Virginia Catherine Patterson, who served for 27 years as the president and chief executive officer of Pioneer Clubs, an international Christian ministry to children, died Sept. 12 at the age of 81.  Patterson was a 1956 graduate of Columbia International University where she earned her master’s degree in Biblical Studies.

Before heading Pioneer Clubs, Patterson served in Nigeria where she taught English grammar and literature to children of American and German missionaries.  She was also a longtime adjunct professor of Christian studies at Wheaton College and several other Christian colleges. 

“She was a strong, smart woman, whose legacy is the positive and profound influence she had on the lives of countless children,” said close friend and former colleague Judy Bryson, the current president and CEO of Pioneer Clubs.  “When children were around her, they felt affirmed.”

Learn more about the life of Virginia Patterson in her obituary in the Chicago Tribune:

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-patterson-obit-20120922,0,6864137.story.