Darien’s Memorial Day keynote speaker this year will be author Robert H. Patton, grandson of General George S. Patton Jr., of World War II fame, and son of Major Gen. George S. Patton IV.
Image from a New York State Writers Institute video
Robert H. Patton
The Darien Monuments and Ceremonies Commission, which organizes the Memorial Day parade and observances, announced Patton’s role as keynote speaker.
Patton will deliver the keynote address at 11:30 a.m., Monday, May 27 during the town’s Memorial Day observance in Spring Grove Veterans Cemetery. The observance will take place right after the Memorial Day Parade. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, it will be held in the Community Room of Darien Library.
Bob and his wife, Vicki raised their four sons here in Darien, three of whom are Darien residents.
Patton has written a book about his family, The Pattons: A Personal History of an American Family.
He also is the author of Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution and Hell Before Breakfast: America’s First War Correspondents among other books.
In addition, Patton is the author of two novels, both published in 1997, Up, Down & Sideways and Life Between Wars.
He graduated with degrees in literature and journalism from Brown University and Northwestern University, worked as “a Capitol Hill reporter, a commercial fisherman and a real estate developer,” according to the Historic Naval Fiction website. which added, “He follows sports, politics, culture, and world affairs, and plays blues guitar.”