James Kennedy Patterson
26 March 1833 - 15 August 1922

James Kennedy Patterson was born in 1833 in Scotland. He attended Hanover College and received a B.A. in 1856 and an M.A. in 1859. He taught at the Presbyterian Academy in Greenville, Kentucky from 1856 until 1859, when he moved to Stewart College in Clarksville, Tennessee. At the start of the Civil War he came to Lexington, Kentucky as principal of Transylvania University, which at the time was a high school. In 1865 Transylvania merged with Kentucky University and the newly formed Agricultural and Mechanical College where he taught and became president in 1869. He retired as president of the State University of Kentucky in 1910 and died in 1922. He was buried in the Lexington Cemetery.

Patterson Hall, the first women's dormitory at the University of Kentucky, and the Patterson Office Tower were named in his honor.

Also see "James Kennedy Patterson" from University Archives.