Elinor Josephine Medill Patterson was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1881 to Elinor (Nellie) and Robert Patterson. Later she changed the spelling of her first name to Eleanor. She was known most of her life by the name “Cissy,” a nickname her brother gave her in her childhood.
Coming from a wealthy family, Patterson was educated at Miss Porter’s School in Farmington, Connecticut. She met her future husband, Count Josef Gizycki, while traveling in Vienna with her aunt and uncle in 1901. Despite the distance, with Patterson back in the United States in Washington DC, the two were married in 1904. Soon after she went to live with the Count in Russia.
Count Gizycki and Patterson had one daughter, Felicia, who was born in 1905. The couple’s married life was tumultuous resulting in Cissy leaving her husband four years into their marriage and fleeing to London. Count Gizycki followed her there and kidnapped their daughter. Eventually Felicia was returned to her mother; however it took 13 years for Cissy to finalize her divorce from the Count. Following the kidnapping ordeal, Patterson returned to the United States, moving first to Lake Forest, Illinois and in 1913 had to Washington DC once again.
With much of her family, including her grandfather and brother in the newspaper industry, by 1920 Patterson had begun writing for her brother’s paper, “New York Daily News.” In 1925, Patterson married again, this time to a New York lawyer, Elmer Schlesinger. The marriage was short lived, as Schlesinger died four years later. During the time they were together, Patterson published two novels, "Glass Houses" (1926) and "Fall" Flight (1928).
In 1930, Patterson became editor of William Randolph Hearst’s "Washington Herald" In 1939, as Hearst’s financial situation declined, Patterson decided to buy the Herald, as well as the "Washington Times " from him. She merged the two papers into one, creating The Times-Herald. Patterson dedicated herself to the paper, both as editor, publisher and owner. Patterson died in July, 1948.
Frederick Mercer Van Sickle is a Canton, Illinois native. He received his undergraduate degree in history from Lake Forest College in 1983. Van Sickle’s last year at the college he completed a senior thesis entitled, “A special place: Lake Forest and the great Depression, 1929-1940.” Van Sickle went on to obtain his master’s degree in education from Harvard University in 1989 and later, in 1996, a doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania. His wife's name is Susan and they have two children.
Van Sickle has held positions in alumni relations and development at various colleges, including his undergraduate alma mater (Lake Forest College), the University of Michigan, Columbia University, and Princeton University. Beginning in 2014, he also worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey as its Chief Development Officer. In 2016, Van Sickle joined Cornell University as vice president for Alumni Affairs and Development.
Van Sickle is chair of the Board for the Crisis Ministry of Mercer County and also served as a trustee of International House New York. He is a current trustee of the Holland Society of New York.
Catherine Shively was the wife of Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Lake Forest College Ralph Shively.