William F. Patton was born in Curwensville, Pennsylvania one of four sons of the wealthy John and Honora J. Patton.  He prepared for his undergraduate work at the Dickinson Preparatory School and entered the College in 1888 with the class of 1892.

While at the College, Patton developed into a fine student athlete.  He captained both football (1890) as a halfback and kicker and baseball (1891 and 1892), playing four years on each team.  When not competing in these sports, he was a long jumper and pole vaulter on the varsity track team, a member of the Gymnastics team, and also found time to become College tennis champion.  He was also very active in the Belle Lettres Society serving as president.  He was also the business manager of the Microcosm, secretary of the College Athletic Association, a member of Chi Phi fraternity, gave the Allison public oration on Class Day, and was elected vice-president of the Senior Class.

After graduating with his class in 1892, he trained as a lawyer and began the practice of law in Curwensville.  In 1903, he moved to Kansas City, Missouri and built a successful practice in the law and banking.  In April, 1900, he had married Ruth Carr of Durham, North Carolina.  The couple had one daughter.  William Patton was not able to realize his fullest potential in a very active family - one brother was a U.S. Senator from Michigan and another a U.S. congressman from Curwensville - as he was diagnosed with stomach cancer.  He was forced to move to Philadelphia to undergo a series of operations at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital but died in that facility on December 20, 1911.  He was forty-two years old.