William Patrick 'Pat' Carleton was as the first mayor of the Resort Municipality of Whistler, serving from 1975 to 1982. Born in Langley, BC, he was a band member for the Salvation Army, the Irish Fusiliers, and the Royal Air Force auxiliaries in his youth. He married his wife, Kay, in 1941, and they had two children, Gordon and Patricia. Carleton had a 25-year career as a coffee salesman, working for Dickson's Coffee and F.J. Neate and Co. He first visited Whistler on a fishing trip in 1956. By 1960, the family owned a cabin at the end of Old Gravel Road on Alpha Lake, which they would visit on weekends and summer holidays.
Upon Carleton's retirement in 1971, he and Kay moved up to the Alpha Lake cabin full-time. Pat became involved in the community, serving on the Alta Lake Ratepayers Association and as president of the Chamber of Commerce. When Whistler was named a Resort Municipality in 1975, he ran successfully for mayor and became head of a five-person municipal council. Over the next seven years, Carleton oversaw the development of Whistler into a fully-fledged resort town. He and his council developed a land use plan which saw the inception of Whistler Village on the site of the former garbage dump. In the face of opposition from large property owners, Carleton and two aldermen went to Victoria to get provincial approval for their plan or face resignation. They were successful, and Carleton would turn the first sod on the future Town Centre site. Other milestones which occurred during his tenure were the openings of Whistler's first sewage treatment plant in 1977 and Blackcomb Mountain in 1980. The Carleton Lodge hotel, named in his honour, opened in the 1982, the year of his retirement as mayor.
Pat and Kay left Whistler for Sardis, BC in 1991. He died in Chilliwack at the age of 84.