'He loved life'

Friend says Aloha Marine Corps Capt. Chris Pate who was killed in Iraq ‘used every minute’

By Ray Pitz

The Beaverton Valley Times, Jul 27, 2006, Updated Oct 30, 2009

Submitted photo / Alex Sutton

Marine Corps Capt. Christopher T. Pate, left, with friends Alex Sutton, center, and Jon Reali, right.

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Alex Sutton will long remember his best friend, Capt. Christopher T. Pate, as someone who didn’t take life in small pieces – he tore off large chunks.

Pate, 29, died Friday in Al Anbar Province, Iraq, the result of injuries suffered from an improvised explosive device that blew up while he and fellow soldiers were on combat operations against anti-Iraq forces.

“He was a unique person, in every sense of the phrase ‘larger than life,’ Sutton said. “He’s been my best friend since about fourth grade.”

Pate grew up in Beaverton where he attended Elmonica Elementary School, Five Oaks Middle School and Aloha High School. He spent his junior and senior years at Oregon Episcopal School, where he graduated in 1995.

Although the two took different routes in high school – Sutton graduated from Jesuit High School – they still kept in touch, maintaining their friendship during two decades.

Sutton, a 29-year-old Portland attorney, said the two were climbing partners, having in the past scaled Rocky Butte and skied up the summit of Mount St. Helens. They also spent time scuba diving in the Puget Sound area.

Calling Pate “ridiculously smart,” Sutton said Pate could have done anything he wanted. Pate’s father, Jerry, is a successful businessman who lives in Florida, and that certainly could have been his future as well.

But Pate was someone who would not, or could not, stand still.

“You couldn’t keep Chris behind a desk with a set of leg irons,” said Sutton. “He needed to be climbing or racing or just devouring his existence.”

As his friendship with Pate grew, Sutton said he came to realize that simply being in his friend’s presence made himself and others better people.

A short time after graduating with a degree in international business from the University of Puget Sound in 1999, Pate joined the Marines.

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