Gilbert Earl Patterson was an American Pentecostal-Holiness leader and minister who served as the international Presiding Bishop and Chief Apostle of the Church of God in Christ, Inc. Bishop G. E. Patterson was born September 22, 1939 to Bishop and Mrs. W. A. Patterson, Sr. in Humboldt, Tennessee.  He has been a gospel Minister for over forty years, having accepted his calling at age 17.  He was ordained as an Elder in the Church of God in Christ in 1957 by Bishop J. S. Bailey in Detroit, Michigan.