Patrick Alan McRoberts

Patrick Alan McRoberts SEATTLE, Washington - Patrick Alan McRoberts, 57, died suddenly at his home in Seattle on May 26, 2010. A memorial service is being planned for a future date. Memorials may be sent to History Link, www.historylink.org. Patrick was born on December 23, 1952, in Muscatine, Iowa, the son of Patrick and Frances Highbarger McRoberts. He was a graduate of Muscatine High School and the University of Iowa, where he also received a master's degree from the Writers Workshop. From 1986 until his death, Patrick worked as a writer in Seattle, primarily with Bob Gogerty and Don Stark - Republicans by day and Democrats by night. They worked on public affairs campaigns for corporations including Boeing, AT amp;T and Weyerhauser on campaigns that included speeches, op-ed pieces and position papers. They would then work pro bono for causes and people they believed in, including former Washington Gov. Mike Lowry and former Seattle Mayor Norm Rice. This drove the political consultants, who charged for such services, crazy. During the early 1990s, Patrick was a member of the Del-Vros, a post-populist fol...[more]

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unk band that worked itself up from playing tiny taverns to its own venue at Seattle's Folklife Festival. He married Kim Harper Holcomb in 1992 in a Seattle park, where Lowry, the then-Governor-elect, helped set up the folding chairs. In the mid-1990s, the couple helped create the literary magazine Point No Point, with the sponsorship of the famous Blue Moon Tavern. The highlight of this project was a $1,500 grant from the Grateful Dead and an invitation to have a booth at the band's next, and what turned out to be last, concert in Seattle. In the 1990s Patrick was an original staff member of History Link, brainchild of the writer Walt Crowley. Catapulted to sudden fame by the 1999 World Trade Organization riots in Seattle, History Link - where Patrick became senior editor and contributed more than 85 essays - remains the living laboratory of history and the go-to site for all things Seattle. He was a member of the band The Peptides, and had his own consulting firm. He was all about words - in lyrics, poetry, short stories and word games - but mainly in conversation. To speak to him was to become his friend. He will be deeply missed by his wife, Kim McRoberts, two sons, Jeremy and Sterling, two granddaughters Twila Ann and Isabella Rose, all of Seattle; his mother, Frances McRoberts of Muscatine; a sister, Pam Sander of Rochester, Minnesota; nephews John Josinger (Keiko) and Douglas Krone; and grand-nephew Skyler Josinger. He was preceded in death by his father, brother Jan McRoberts, grandparents Olive and James Highbarger and Geneva and Ernest McRoberts.