Malcolm Rice Patterson was an American politician and jurist. He served as Governor of Tennessee from 1907 to 1911, and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1901 to 1906. He later served as a circuit court judge in Memphis (1923-1934), and wrote a weekly column for the Memphis Commercial Appeal (1921-1933).

During Patterson’s term as governor, he created a State Highway Commission, signed legislation that banned gambling on horse races, and enacted food and drug regulations. Patterson was the first governor to occupy a governor’s mansion (previous governors had lived in hotel rooms), which was purchased by the state, and occupied by successive governors until 1922, when a new residence was built. At the beginning of his second term in 1909, he signed the General Education Act, which created four colleges: East Tennessee State University, Middle Tennessee State University, the University of Memphis, and Tennessee State University.