Image courtesy of Facebook.
Longtime DC Comics staff member Tom Pattison has died at the age of 64, Newsarama reports. Pattison served as the company’s Royalties & Participation Manager from 1996 until his retirement in 2011, overseeing the royalty payments for their creators. The cause of death was cancer.
Thomas Campbell Pattison was born on July 18, 1955. He attended Long Island University, earning a Master’s Degree in Accounting, and joined DC as a Staff Accountant in August 1984. In 1986, he took on the role of supervision of Royalties, before becoming the company’s Royalties & Participatation Manager a decade later. He is survived by his wife, Geraldine, and two sons.
Former DC publisher Paul Levitz announced the news on Facebook, stating:
“For many years, DC had the reputation of making its royalty payments promptly and fully, and with detail ample for talent to understand the basis on which they were being paid. While many of us were involved in the process, there was one person disproportionately responsible for making it happen every month. I’m sad to report that Tom Pattison, the man whose dedication and diligence enabled DC to achieve this reputation, passed away after battling cancer.
Tom was soft-spoken, and largely invisible to the wider comics community. But his efforts made so many people’s lives better, simply by ensuring that an important flow of their income would arrive smoothly and honestly… and no funds wouldn’t be credited simply because they were too difficult to account for. Tom made the whole company look good.”
Levitz added, “Please join me in sending condolences to his family, and in honoring his service.” A private service will be held for Pattison’s family in his hometown of Farmingdale tomorrow.
