Tom Patterson 1920 to 2005. Born Stratford, WW2 vet. Writer for Macleans Magazine. In 1953 the city was experiencing industrial decline due to the decline of the rail industry in Stratford. Patterson, with no experience in the theatre, proposed the idea of a theatre festival. He persuaded the town council to back it, local citizens to organize it, and somehow got well-known Shakespearean director Tyrone Guthrie to run it.