Graveside services for Donald M. Paterson Jr., of Brookhaven, are Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2015, at 10 a.m. at Leland-Stoneville Cemetery in Stoneville. Boone Funeral Home in Leland is in charge of arrangements.

For his many former students and local friends there will be a celebration of life to be held at a future date at the Inez Apartment House Lobby, 104 East Monticello Avenue, Brookhaven.

Mr. Paterson, 77, died on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015, at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson. He was born May 5, 1938 in Leland to Donald M. and Mary Bess Paterson.

He attended the Leland Public Schools, graduating in 1956. Don received a bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi and a master’s degree from the University of Southern Mississippi. He also studied at the University of Texas for a time. He was a teacher, first at Okaloosa-Walton Community College in Florida, during the first formative years of that institution. He later taught in the Advanced Placement Program for the Brookhaven Public School System for almost 30 years, retiring recently to enjoy his avid reading interests and some private instruction in Brookhaven. He loved to teach, and he very much appreciated every opportunity to hold forth in front of a class of students.

Survivors are his brother, James R. Paterson (Lynn) of Oxford; niece Beth Paterson Edwards (Shelby) of Dunwoody, Georgia; nephew Tommy Paterson (Lori) of Knoxville, Tennessee; as well as by his many loyal former students and good friends.