- Patrick McRoberts was a writer, editor, public affairs consultant and political strategist, a biographer, historian, musician, cultural vivant and gadfly, spiritual advisor in the way of the Tao, and an unseen giant in the affairs of Seattle who, perhaps as much as anyone, gave the city its skyline and much of its spirit for the beginning of the twenty-first century. A child of the Vietnam era, a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, and a contributor to causes that mattered, he used his remarkable gifts for communication and community to shape the issues, campaigns, and leaders that shaped the city and the state.