Bob Patton hears all the time that his father and grandfather must be rolling in their graves. He laughs, knowing better than anyone, that they’d not only approve but embrace the modern direction of his famous family’s latest business.
Chris Zawacki (from left), Bob Patton and Rob Patton outside their cannabis facility in Southbridge, Mass.
He doesn’t lead soldiers in the armed forces like his forefathers. Instead, Bob makes a living selling a plant their generations demonized.
"They were of a different time," said Patton, founder and chairman of Green Meadows, a vertically integrated cannabis company in Southbridge, Mass. "I know for a fact that they would have listened and said if soldiers are telling us that it helps, then by God, let's at least make it available to them as a choice."
Patton, along with his son Rob Patton and stepsons Chris Zawacki and Tom Zawacki (whom he calls "sons"), launched Green Meadows on that idea in 2017. The company now employs about 55 people, operates dispensaries in Southbridge, Fitchburg and Marlborough, and grows on 10,000 square feet of indoor canopy in an old Southbridge mill. Rob heads sales and marketing, while Chris is CEO and Tom sits on the board of directors.
From Horse Farm to Farm Stand
Back in 1928, Gen. Patton and his wife Beatrice founded Green Meadows on 200 acres of mostly swamp and tree-covered land in the rural town of Hamilton, Mass. They used the land as a homestead and horse farm for Beatrice, who was an avid equestrian. Green Meadows stayed in the family for decades, eventually passing down to Patton IV when Beatrice died in 1953.
But Patton IV, who retired as a two-star general in 1980, had no interest in horses.
"I don't want to sit on my back porch and drink whiskey,” Bob said he recalls his father saying. “I want to do something.”
The "crusty old former soldier," as Bob calls him, carved about 20 tillable acres out of the 200-acre estate, then planted strawberries and blueberries for a pick-your-own style produce store. He opened a farm stand in Hamilton and became one of the first certified organic growers in Massachusetts.
The Patton family donated its original homestead to the town of Hamilton, Mass., in 2012.
‘Over My Dead Body’
When Patton IV developed Parkinson's disease around 2000, his wife and Bob’s mother, Joanne Holbrook Patton, wanted to keep the Green Meadows farm going. She was entering her 70s at the time, and for the business to continue, she needed the next generation of Pattons to take over.
Joanne brought the entire family together to discuss the property’s future, including whether to sell, lease or keep farming. Bob's sister had worked with veterans, and his younger brother suggested growing cannabis to help them.
Rob, Joanne’s grandson, said the matriarch’s response to converting the historic property into a cannabis farm was understandably skeptical, to put it lightly.
"The first words out of her mouth were 'over my dead body,'" Rob said. "She was not for it at all.”
Joanne’s kids and grandkids continued to emphasize the medical benefits of cannabis, especially for veterans. Thankfully, given the family’s decorated military history, she eventually came around.
Terpgasm cultivar grown at Green Meadows.
Residents in Hamilton were a much harder sell. City officials unanimously approved a small medical grow, but Bob says his deep-pocketed neighbors fought it at every turn.
"As benign as you and I might think it is, being just a medical cultivator in a lovely town, that was like bringing in heroin," he said. "They just were not ready."
Instead, the family moved Green Meadows’ project 90 miles west to blue-collar Southbridge, where Bob said the community "rolled out the red carpet." Rob said the Pattons even helped the town council get the vote to approve cannabis in early 2019.
Back in Hamilton, much of the old estate is protected from development through the Essex County Greenbelt Association. Joanne donated the family homestead before she died in 2023. Families now hike on the property and, during the winter, cross-country ski on trails through the woods.
‘We Knew What We Didn't Know’
A grow room at Green Meadows' 10,000 square feet of indoor canopy in Southbridge, Mass.
The founders knew how to work in corporate America but lacked the know-how to grow cannabis. Rob says it took several tries and years of work to bridge the “unique” gap between cannabis culture and legitimate business. Only in recent years did the family start feeling that Green Meadows had finally reached a sweet spot between the two.
“We knew what we didn’t know, which I think helped us understand we needed to bring in the right people to make everything work how it was supposed to,” Rob said. “We never pretended we could do this completely on our own because there was a lot we needed to learn from people who really knew and understood cannabis.”
The company's first two master growers, according to Rob, were fantastic at cultivating the plant but struggled in a structured business environment. The growers, one of whom was from Colorado, were eventually shown the door because their laid-back approach didn’t quite jive with the needs of modern cultivation in an ever-changing legalized market.
The fix was Dan Donahue, a former PharmaCann executive with a background in medical device manufacturing, who took over all of production until late 2025. Donahue returned to medical devices about a year ago, but the system he built still runs at Green Meadows. The company’s plants have yet to fail a lab test, according to Rob, who vaunts Green Meadows as one of the state's top licensed sellers of clones.
"We turned it into more of a manufacturing production environment with roles and responsibilities laid out, where everyone felt a sense of ownership over every stage of production,” he said.
Keeping the Flag Flying
Neither Bob, Rob, Chris nor Tom wore the uniform themselves, but Bob said a number of cousins on his mother’s side attended West Point, the Naval Academy and the Air Force Academy en route to decorated military careers. Still, the Pattons continue to reach veterans through Green Meadows in honor of their family legacy.
The company requires that at least one in every 10 of its employees are military vets, and each of Green Meadows’ three dispensaries partners with Alternative Wellness Centers, where veterans can book telehealth visits with licensed cannabis doctors and get their Massachusetts medical cards on the same day.
This November, the company's veterans drive will donate $1 for every Tank, Stellar or General’s Aide product sold at Green Meadows.
When Rob first reached out to veterans charities, many turned him down because they rely on federal grants and can’t accept money from a still federally illegal business. So instead, the family launched a nonprofit, Patton Alliance for Veterans, in 2023 as Green Meadows’ 501(c)(3) arm. The nonprofit has donated $15,000 across organizations like Stop Soldier Suicide, Sweats for Vets and the Black Veterans Project, and an upcoming November drive will add $1 for every Tank, Stellar or General’s Aide product sold at Green Meadows.
“We feel it’s in our DNA to keep the flag flying,” Bob said.
Fast Take With Bob and Rob Patton of Green Meadows
What’s the biggest cultivation challenge you've faced? How did you resolve it?
Rob: We didn't know cannabis when we first came into this, so we had to put a lot of trust into people that did cultivation as their profession before us. Someone who's been growing and cultivating their entire life maybe doesn't have the best … managerial experience. So, we basically put all of production under [Dan Donahue]. He knew how to grow, but he wasn't a master grower. He knew how to extract, but he wasn't an extraction specialist. We turned it into more of a manufacturing production environment with roles and responsibilities laid out, where everyone felt a sense of ownership over every stage of production.
What’s been your biggest business challenge? How did you resolve it?
Rob: More recently, the industry itself is set up in such a way that the MSOs have an inherent advantage. Maybe they're making great margins in other states, so they can afford to go with really low prices and really aggressive constructs in Massachusetts and hurt other businesses. But that’s capitalism, and it's sour grapes to complain about it. One thing we learned early on was which towns were more open to having a vertically integrated cannabis business put in place. So that’s why we chose Southbridge, Fitchburg and Marlborough.
Green Meadows Farm's organic produce stand in Hamilton, Mass., which the family closed in 2017, before pursing a green thumb in cannabis.
Biggest lesson from your family's military history?
Bob: When I was coming out of high school, it was just after Vietnam. My father had done three tours there, and veterans were very looked down upon. Now, when we see soldiers in the airport or the bus station, you don't feel like, "Oh, geez, look at those poor saps." You honor them. You respect them. We carry that ethic in our family all the way through, and we still lead with that. Whether you're working for us, or whether you're a partner or a vendor of some kind, or whether you're a patient or a customer across the counter, you are a high priority for us.
Rob: We as a family had an opportunity early on to work with another operator that really just wanted to leverage the name and the story. The pitch to us was, “Sit back, collect a royalty check, and we'll handle all the hard stuff.” But instead, we as a family decided, look, we're going to do this on our own. There's no man behind the man here. We're owners, and we're operators.
What keeps you awake at night?
Rob: I have four kids, 8, 5 and 4-year-old twins, so that's the stuff that keeps me awake at night (laughs). But for the business, it's the fact that this is still a rapidly growing, burgeoning industry, but it's fraught with a lot of tension and a lot of volatility. Any day can bring about a new challenge. My theme as of late in 2026, and likely in 2027, has just been predictability. If we can offer ourselves, as an independent, small cannabis business, an element of predictability, that is worth its weight in gold.
Bob: A great issue in the industry across the country is people that are under duress that can't pay their bills. If we're forgiving 90 days or whatever on invoices, and then we get someone that says you're not going to get your inputs for your manufacturing without COD [cash on delivery], you have this problem about putting out a lot of money.
What helps you sleep?
Rob: Other than weed, at my core, it's the 8-year-old, the 5-year-old, the two 4-year-olds. That's the stuff that really is the most important stuff. Yes, we're building this great business, but we're never losing sight of who we are and why we got into this in the first place.
Bob: For me, it’s that the company has faced the gun barrel a few times, but we've gotten through. I'm glad to still be standing.
