Patrick D. Ertel passed away at the age of 67 on Sunday, March 15th, in his recently adopted hometown of Beaufort, South Carolina, after suffering a massive heart attack.
The youngest son of Louis G. Ertel and Edith (Marks) Ertel, Patrick was born on October 21st, 1947, and was raised in Muncie, Indiana. He graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Notre Dame (1970) and earned his Juris Doctor from Northwestern University (1973). He practiced intellectual property law for 42 years in Chicago, the past 16 of those years with Marshall, Gerstein & Borun, where he served as a Managing Partner.
Patrick was respected as a generous mentor, whether it was by colleagues at work or by youth on the soccer field. He held a commitment to education and not only actively pursued his own ongoing learning, but also proudly supported anyone whom he might be able to help do the same. He saw athletics as a tool to positively impact the lives of young people—especially his three daughters, as well as many of their teammates—and was a dedicated youth soccer coach who retired his whistle with a winning record.
Patrick died doing something he loved: running. He ran three days per week during most weeks, and although it had been decades since he completed the Chicago Marathon, he may have been in the best shape of his life. If there was any other activity that Patrick might have chosen as his last, it surely would have been captaining his boat, Pearl of the South, across the waterways of the Lowcountry with his wife and dog by his side.