After graduating from the University of Iowa Patrick spent several years abroad teaching High School history in International Schools. The list includes schools in Nicaragua, Egypt, Belgium and the Netherlands. He then went to Cambridge University in England where he received an M.Phil and PhD in History. For the last thirty years Patrick has been the John Sperry Jr. Endowed Chair in the Humanities at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri. Here he taught courses in European and Middle Eastern history. He also founded and directed the college’s study abroad program for twenty years. Patrick retired and became an Emeritus Professor in May of 2023. Since then he has collaborated with Terrell Dempsey on a book about abolitionism and the underground Railroad in western Illinois. The book will be published by the University of Missouri Press. He lives in Quincy, Illinois with his wife, Mary and cat, Constantine.