C. H. Patterson

C. H. (Cecil Holden) Patterson (June 22, 1912 – May 26, 2006) was born in Lynn, Massachusetts. He was an Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the United States.

He received his bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1938, and his Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1955. He was the author of many publications in the fields of educational psychology and counseling.

He served in the Army during World War II. In 1942, he married Frances Spano, a nutritionist whom he met at Fels Research Institute in Yellow Springs, Ohio. They had seven children. His second-eldest child is Francine Patterson, a researcher who taught a modified form of American Sign Language to a gorilla named Koko.