Box of historical keepsakes will go back to former editor

Esther Short — Volunteer Robert Thompson of Open House Ministries was digging through the donations when the contents of one big cardboard box caught his eye. It was full of notebooks, letters, plaques, newspaper clippings — decades’ worth of keepsakes belonging to Stanton Patty. Patty was an editor at The Seattle Times for 34 years who retired to Hazel Dell and did freelance travel writing for The Columbian. He said the box must have been donated by mistake; Open House staffers plan to drive the box to him at his current address, the Woodland Assisted Living Center. Thompson is excited to have spotted the box and saved it for return to its rightful owner.