Margaret "Maggie" Patton

PATTON Margaret "Maggie" Patton, a noted choreographer and director and a longtime dance professor at Kenyon College, passed away on June 8, 2011, at Kobacker House in Columbus following a short illness. Surrounded by family members at her death, she was seventy-one. Born February 7, 1940, in Centralia, Illinois, Maggie was the daughter of Hazel and Paul Sprehe. She graduated from the University of Illinois in 1962 and earned a master's degree at Ohio State University in 1965. In 1973 she left OSU to form her own dance company, Dancentral, Columbus' first professional dance company. As the company's artistic director, Maggie created more than seventy major dance works for subscription seasons and regional tours. In 1979, Maggie began her "summer career" as the choreographer of the Ohio Light Opera (OLO) at the College of Wooster. She had a distinguished record of achievement with the OLO in her eleven seasons, choreographing or directing more than fifty productions from Gilbert & Sullivan and European operetta. Her distinguished career at Kenyon College began in 1982 as an assistant professor of dance. She won tenure and promotion to associate professor in 1987 and full professor in 1998. She was among the earliest Kenyon faculty members to receive the Trustee Teaching Excellence Award in 1995. At her retirement from Kenyon in 2000, Maggie was awarded an honorary doctor of fine arts degree and the status of professor emerita. Maggie is survived by her husband, David Braden Patton, whom she married on December 18, 1965; two sons, Eric David and Steven Robert Patton; two grandsons, Zachary and Nicholas Patton; and a brother, Steven Sprehe. She was predeceased by her father and mother and a brother Robert Sprehe. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Maggie Patton Fund, housed at the Kristina Isabelle Dance Company, 67 Jefferson Avenue, Columbus, Ohio 43215. The fund supports the Columbus Dance History Project, which was initiated by Maggie and which will produce a multimedia book and stage a production in her honor in March 2012 in Columbus. A celebration of Maggie's life will be held at 3 p.m. on Saturday, June 18, 2011, at First Unitarian Universalist Church at 93 West Weisheimer Road in Columbus.