Richard Cunningham Patterson Jr. (1886–1966) was an American government official and diplomat. Patterson was born in

Omaha Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. The nation's 39th-largest city ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the southwe ...

, the son of Richard Cunningham Patterson, an attorney, and Martha Belle Neiswanger. After working as a laborer in the gold mines of

South Dakota South Dakota (; Sioux language, Sioux: , ) is a U.S. state in the West North Central states, North Central region of the United States. It is also part of the Great Plains. South Dakota is named after the Lakota people, Lakota and Dakota peo ...

and a year at the

University of Nebraska A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, the ...

, he received an engineer of mines degree at

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

’s School of Mines in 1912. Patterson was the U.S. ambassador to

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

(1944–1946),

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

(1948–1951), and U.S. Minister to

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

(1951–53). While ambassador to Guatemala, he popularized the term

duck test The duck test is a form of abductive reasoning, usually expressed as "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck." The test implies that a person can identify an unknown subject by observing t ...

. Amid charges in Guatemala that Patterson was intervening in Guatemala's internal affairs, and rumors that Patterson's life was in danger, Patterson hurriedly departed for the United States on March 28, 1950. His mission in Guatemala was terminated on April 24, 1951, when a new ambassador, Rudolf E. Schoenfeld, presented his credentials.

References

External links

* http://www.correctionhistory.org/html/chronicl/nycdoc/html/rcpbio3.html
The Richard Cunningham Papers at the Truman Library
1886 births 1966 deaths Ambassadors of the United States to Guatemala Ambassadors of the United States to Switzerland Ambassadors of the United States to Yugoslavia 20th-century American diplomats Columbia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni University of Nebraska Omaha alumni {{US-diplomat-stub