William MacFarland Patton, the son of John M. and Margaret William Patton, was born in Richmond, Virginia on August 22, 1845. He attended the Virginia Military Institute during the Civil War and served with the cadet corps in the Battle of New Market in 1864. Patton graduated from VMI in 1869 and left Virginia to engage in engineering in Central America and the Caribbean. Patton became an adjunct professor of civil egineering at VMI in 1873 and was promoted to full professor the following year, when he was also comissioned a colonel of hte state militia, a position he would hold until 1882, when he returned to private enterprise. During the next five years, he was involved in construction of the B&O Railroad Susquhanna River bridge at Havre de Grace, Maryland, and the Ohio River bridge at Point Pleasant, West virginia, among other projects and also served as chief engineer of the Mobile and Birmingham and the Louisville, St. Louis and Texas railways. In 1887, he reutrned to VMI as chair of civil engineering and remained for two years. From 1889 to 1896, Patton was chiefly engaged in writing A Practical Treatise on Foundations and A Treatise on Civil Engineering, while also working on various engineering projects, including the Chicago Drainage Canal. In 1896, Patton was appointed the civil engineering chair at Virginia Agricultural & Mechanical College (now Virginia Tech); he was named the first dean of the university's engineering department in 1904, and held that position until his death the following year.