Michael Patenaude

MADISON - On Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2020, Michael Francis Patenaude ceased living the physically and intellectually active life to which he had become accustomed. He died, age 77, in the home he shared with Judy, his loving wife of 53 years. Illness over the last few years slowly robbed Mike of his infamous capacity for word play, both spoken and written, intensifying his acerbic nature. But the man who increasingly shunned holiday gatherings could still excoriate his beloved Packers after a botched play and command a room with his quick wit. “I really liked that pretend curmudgeon,” one dear friend said of him after his passing. Mike grew up in Green Bay, Wis., and graduated from Green Bay West High School. He served in the U.S. Navy, from 1962 to 1964, aboard the aircraft carrier the USS Constitution. After earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he started honing his writing and reporting skills at the Mount Horeb Mail, where he served as editor and columnist from 1971 to 1974. In addition to covering village life and advocating for open government, Mike briefly joined the big media gaggle in Washington, D.C. covering the Watergate hearings. It was standing room only for those who came to “sneer, applaud, listen, wonder and decide and claim a remnant of history; or faint,” Mike wrote. In his final column for the Mail, published May 16, 1974, he wrote, “If I’ve offended anyone out there in the past three years, good; that’s what I was here for. You probably had it coming anyway. If you didn’t, you probably will sometime in the future and I won’t be here to get you. Please be patient.” A week later the newspaper ran a letter signed by 23 Mount Horeb residents thanking Mike for the “spirited and courageous voice” he brought to their community newspaper. He then spent several years freelancing from Mount Horeb for the Wisconsin State Journal, Capital Times and the now defunct Ocooch Mountain News while raising two children, Joel and Dena - long before it was socially acceptable to be a stay-at-home dad while mom worked outside the home. With his children grown, Mike would remain a great cook and bread maker. After the kids started school, Mike entered politics. He served one term on the Mount Horeb Village Board and ran unsuccessfully for a State Assembly seat before working for the Assembly Democratic Caucus and, from 1983 to 1987, as press secretary for Democratic Lt. Gov. Jim Flynn. Mike then returned to the Democratic Caucus as senior analyst but quit in 1995 in part because he objected to doing campaign work on state time. In retirement, Mike turned to researching his family genealogy, which took him and Judy twice annually to cemeteries in northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan as well as to Maine, Nova Scotia and Ireland. He journaled about his epic paddling trips through the Sylvania Wilderness in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and in Ontario’s Quetico Provincial Park. And he wrote evocative poetry about his outdoor adventures. In one poem, titled “Dawning on Blue Mounds,” included in the 2005 Wisconsin Poets’ Calendar, he wrote, “Postponing breakfast muffins, I grip ski poles in numb fingers, suck long-searing cold, swoop and bend into the wood.” At the time of his death, Mike had long since stopped running and biking the mercilessly hilly rural roads of western Dane and Iowa counties. He had, however, started contemplating his mortality, but without sentimentality. “This is the end as far as I can guess. If not, [Judy and I] will link up regardless of where our wrinkles and infirmities are stashed,” he wrote in a 1999 journal entry. “If folks want a memorial marker, then let it be a living one - a tree would likely outlive my memory; one stuck in the mud, vacillating in the wind, a little tipsy. Breathing the air of all the seasons.” Mike is survived by his wife, Judy (Crawford); son Joel Patenaude; daughter Dena (Ryan) Hudson; grandchildren Natoshia Whylie, Felicia Whylie, Sayla Whylie, Chloe Hudson, Owen Hudson, Finn Patenaude and Harper Patenaude; and sisters Nancy Patenaude and Jean Patenaude. He was preceded in death by his parents, William F. “Pat” and Margaret (Kennedy) Patenaude; brother Robert Patenaude; and sister Peg Gillette. A private graveside service will be held at Natural Path Sanctuary. Memorials may be gifted in Mike’s name to Agrace HospiceCare. Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com. Gunderson East Funeral & Cremation Care 5203 Monona Drive (608) 221-5420