His son, Matthew Pater, remembers as a young boy going with his father every Saturday as he mowed lawns, delivered birthday cakes, and Christmas gifts to his cash-strapped clients.
“There was a time when I thought everybody did stuff like that,” Pater, 49, said.
Then he realized his father was “one of a kind.”
His father told him some of his clients needed the support because they were alone or unable to afford certain services.
When Pater asked his father about his generosity, he said: “It’s the right thing to do.”
Now Pater tries to carry on the family tradition.
“He put that into me to help those who needed help,” his son said.
No matter where he was, or what his busy schedule required, Pater never missed a family celebration, his son said.
Pater said family was “the most important thing” in his father’s life. “Family always came first.”
Pater said he was adopted and his father “at no point treated me anything but 100 percent his son.”
He often called Pater his “No. 1 son.” Then he reminded his father with a laugh he was an only child.
Pater’s parents divorced when he was a young boy and he lived with his mother in Hyde Park. Every Wednesday and every other weekend, his father always visited, Pater said.
“He was an incredible father,” he said.
His father also helped couples who were seeking an adoption.
“He knew the joy he got from” being an adoptive parent, his son said.
Clement’s academic journey began at St. Peter in Chains Elementary and continued at St. Xavier High School where he graduated in 1960.
He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Xavier University, then his Juris Doctor degree at the University of Cincinnati Law School in 1969.
He worked for 53 years with his father, brother and nephew at the Pater Law Firm in Hamilton. He retired in 2022. He was a member of the Butler County and Ohio State Bar Associations.
He also served as a board member for several local organizations including the Butler County Historical Society, Home Federal Savings and Loan Association, and Senior Citizens of Hamilton.
Pater had a wide range of interests, including matchbook collecting, a passion he pursued for 68 years as a member of the Rathkamp Matchcover Society, vintage automobiles, trains, traveling, road trips along Route 66, exercising, reading, baseball and umpiring, and spending time with family and friends.
FUNERAL ARRANGEMENTS
Visitation will be from 5-8 p.m. Friday at Brown Dawson Flick Funeral Home, 330 Pershing Ave., Hamilton.
Mass of Christian Burial will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Peter in Chains Catholic Church, 382 Liberty Ave., with celebrant Fr. Richard Walling. Burial will follow at St. Stephen Cemetery.
A reception will follow the services at 12:30 p.m. at Champion Mill Conference Center, inside The Hydraulic Bar, 600 N B Street, Hamilton.
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