The British press called him "Mr Fixit". Among the kinder Chinese epithets during his time as the last governor of Hong Kong was "Tangoman", earned by his response to questions about whether he would talk to Beijing: "it takes two to tango".
He is the last Tory chairman to win a general election, even though he lost his own seat. He remains resolutely loyal to the party but is one of its most determined Europhiles. He chaired a commission on the reform of the RUC, earning little but dog's abuse for his efforts.
And he was the undoubted star of parliamentary hearings in Brussels when his fast, wry wit and years of Commons experience served him well.
Fate has played him a strange hand. Now the Last Governor has exchanged his role as the undertaker of Britain's global rule for one as EU Commissioner for External Relations, the man who must put reality into the EU's new aspiration to world-power status.
Speaking in his spectacular office on the 15th floor of the Commission's Charlemagne building, Chris Patten admits the scale of the challenge. "The last job I did was the end of a historical process . . . I now find myself in a job that is `work in progress'. Where it will end heaven knows."
He rejects the idea that the development of an EU security and military capability is about a new search for empire. "Is Europe driven by a modern imperial zeal? By a deranged folie de grandeur? I don't think that's fair or true. I think there is a greater awareness of our responsibility to stand up for values which have shaped our destinies for the better but are still under challenge elsewhere."
The partial diplomatic boycott of Austria must be seen in this light, he says, drawing a clear line between the role of the member-states and the EU institutions.
"The member-states can say we're not going to welcome the Austrian net-ball team. But on Monday morning I had to sit down in the General Affairs Council with the Austrian Foreign Minister, because the Austrians have not done anything which would cause us to change the process.
"What we have said in the Commission is that we will be watching like hawks to ensure they actually abide by the spirit and letter of what they signed up to as a member of the EU."
His priority is to "convey to people in Austria that we're not condemning every Austrian voter as a potential extremist. We don't believe that everybody who voted for that deplorable populist is a neo-fascist."
The reasons for popular discontent at the outgoing coalition are not for him to comment on, he says. "But our real message has got to be this - the EU has worked so extraordinarily well, not because it's got powerful institutions, not because it has punitive capacity, but because people trust one another.
"And when a member-state appears to be flirting with ideas which the rest of us regard as outside the mainstream of normal political debate it makes us anxious about the degree of trust which is going to be available." A point, he says, particularly worth making before enlargement.
Patten's espousal of human rights ahead of commercial interest got him into trouble as governor with both the Chinese and London. Yet he remains insistent that they must be the cornerstone of EU policy.
"You read Benjamin Constant or you read Alexis de Tocqueville and you see the clear argument that countries which treat their citizens properly are the best neighbours and the best people to do business with.
"What did we learn from the Asian financial crash? That political reform is as important as economic reform. Hey presto! So much for all those smart conventional-wisdom leaders of Davos, who in the mid-1990s were talking about the `Asian miracle', or discovery by the Asians of some traditional set of authoritarian values that would help growth, that there was almost a mechanistic relationship between locking up newspaper editors and your GDP rate of growth.
"That's transformed into a sudden recognition that freedom of speech and transparency of regulations and accountability are all really rather good news for investors and exporters.
"I am a strong advocate of Chinese accession to the World Trade Organisation. I also think that we should talk politely but firmly about our views on human rights to China. Why are we damaged by that?"
He insists the EU is improving in this regard, pointing to last month's decision to impose sanctions, albeit limited, on Russia over Chechnya.
Patten is exasperated and dismissive of media speculation that the newly created post of Secretary General of the Council of Ministers, known as "Mr Common Foreign and Security Policy", and occupied by Javier Solana, has somehow eclipsed his job.
Solana's role in EU diplomacy and preparing a military capability is one thing, but "I also take to the table what you need to translate the rhetoric of foreign policy into things happening on the ground", he says.
"We have huge competences, in trade and development assistance, and our external assistance budget is about €5 billion. We are talking of spending in the Balkans and south-east Europe in the next six years €12 billion.
"If I find myself in a conversation about the Balkans, of course there are those who want to know my view on Resolution 1,244, but the most important thing people want to talk about is `What are you going to do to help Croatia after the elections?', `How are you going to help promote economic entrepreneurialism in Bosnia?', `How much can you afford to spend on sustaining civil administration in Kosovo?' "
And that is just as true in any part of the world, he insists.
And in Britain, has Tony Blair left the case for the euro drift for too long to retrieve?
"No. Though I have some sympathy with the proposition. It's plainly the case that if you never put an argument it's difficult to win it.
"Secondly, I think there used to be a view that since people appeared to believe it was inevitable one day that we would join the euro, all we had to do was stand back and that sense of inevitability would seep into people's voting intentions. I don't think that's a well-judged strategy."
The strength of the media campaign is also a particular problem.
"But do I think the argument is over for years? No. One of the things that is going to shape the debate very vigorously is when the euro is going to start being used and traded in Britain.
"What is it going to be like in south-east England in five or six years' time? What are people going to be using in Safeways in Maidstone? You will have retailers as well as firms operating in two currencies."
Is the Tory policy to fight the next election on a policy of not entering the euro during the next term sensible?
"I think it's curious to say that `not for five years' is a principle and that `after five years' somehow the issue is changed. The Conservative Party's position has a great deal of support in the broad body of the Conservative Party. The trouble is that the Conservative Party is at present not broad enough.
"And there is the salience of the European issue, despite the profile given it by the media, despite the high eccentrics of a press, much of which is nationalistic on just about every issue except the ownership of newspapers. Despite all that, Europe is way down the list of the issues which concern people.
"And despite the emphasis given to it by the Conservatives in the last ICM poll, they only had a lead of 2 or 3 per cent over Labour on the issue."
It's not an election winner?
"It doesn't seem to me that it's a showstopper."