Edward M Peterson

Edward (“Pete”) Peterson (92) passed away on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2017, after a lengthy illness, at his home in Port Orchard, Washington, surrounded by family who had been lovingly caring for him. He has gone to join his family on the other side of the veil. We will miss him greatly, but are relieved that he is at peace and rest, and he is happy.

Edward was born May 30, 1924, at the family home in St. Charles, Bear Lake County, Idaho, to Mary Delta and Alfred Charles Peterson. His forebears were some of the pioneers of the valley. He was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and remained a faithful member until the end of his mortal journey.

It was a hard life in the Bear Lake valley, especially through the Depression years. The family raised a garden, and hunted for the necessary meat to sustain them. Hunting remained a passion through Ed’s adult years in the mountainess areas of Washington State. His family had milk cows and there was a creamery in town to which the farmers would bring their milk. Ed would say that every spring they looked forward to the rhubarb emerging because it brought a refreshing change to the diet of the large family. The winters were harsh at the 6,000 foot altitude.

Ed was involved with cattle roundups with his Dad and brothers and other ranchers. The cattle were driven up into the canyons and rounded up in the fall.

It was not all work, however. There were parties and dances to which they may have arrived on horseback, or by a horse-drawn sleigh or buggy. His mother made home-made ice cream for a lot of these functions. His father was a carpenter as well as a farmer/rancher, and built some of the homes in the area including their family home.

Scouting was a big thing in the Valley, and campouts in Big Creek Canyon highlighted every summer. His father was a chaperone so that the boys always got to participate.

The boys helped gather firewood from the nearby canyons during the summer months to heat the family home through the long hard winters. As each Christmas season approached, the boys would help their dad hitch the team to the sleigh and off they would go to find a suitable Christmas tree.

At a very young age, Ed contracted scarlet fever which threatened his life. His mother nursed him back to health with mustard packs and 24-hr care. This put him behind in school and affected him for some time. At about the age of 14, and anxious to get to a dance, he milked a cow out in the pasture where it was grazing instead of bringing it down to the milking area. A bull jumped the cow and that is all Ed remembers. It was presumed that he was kicked in the eye by the incident. After that time he saw double because one eye would not move off center. He wore a patch over the eye for a time and that embarrassed him in school. His eyesight improved in later adult years, but became a problem again in the last years of his life which made it difficult to read. He was not accepted by the military during WWII because of this.

Many of Ed’s brothers joined the service, and anxious to do something in the war effort, he left high school in his senior year to work at Hill AFB in Ogden, Utah. Later during the war, he worked in the Portland, Oregon, shipyards. That work petered out when the war ended and he took a job with Long Bell in southwest Washington in 1946. That began his life-long love of felling trees and chopping wood. While living in Ryderwood, Washington, he was married to his first wife Bernadine Allen and sons Darrel and Rickie were born to that union in neighboring towns.

When that area became logged out in 1954, he took his young family to Bremerton, Washington, where he got a job as a welder in the shipyard. They moved to the Port Orchard area in 1958 and bought a home. In the late 1970’s when the shipyard was laying off workers, he was offered early disability retirement because of the damage to his knees from kneeling on the hot and cold steel on the ships.

Ed found that retirement didn’t suit him, and finding that his knees had improved, he purchased a 5-acre tract on Salmonberry Road in Port Orchard for $14,000 and built a home there. Later he built another house on one of the lots from the 1st short plat of the acreage..

There were many, many fishing trips with friends and sometimes he filled the backyard with fish to clean and process.

Ed loved bowling, golfing, crabbing, square dancing. His life was full.

He held many leadership positions in the Church. The first call in Port Orchard was as a Weblos leader, and he took his sons on many hikes, taught them to fish, and repair cars. They were also involved in the building of the home.

In 1989 he married Linda Ruth Jenne who was 20 years his junior. In 1991 he began building another home on a back lot on the property and moved in in May of 1992. From this marriage, Ed became “Papa” to Linda’s two girls, Erin and Julie. He is a beloved grandfather not only to Cody, Rickie’s son, but to Julie and Garth’s 6 sons who were often with Grandma and Grandpa Peterson when the family was stationed at Fort Lewis. Through their father’s deployments, Grandpa Peterson and their other grandparents and uncles and aunts became a stabilizing influence on the young boys. How they love this Grandpa of theirs!

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the local units are called “wards” and are presided over by a Bishop who has two counselors. Here are some memories shared by an early Bishop of the first Port Orchard ward. His name is David Terry and Ed was called as one of his counselors:

Here are some fun memories I have...

“Ed "Pete" Peterson is one of the original Port Orchard Ward Saints. We moved into the ward in November 1976 and less than a year later I was called to replace Bishop Barney as the ward bishop.

I hadn't been bishop long before I realized I needed more "doers" in the bishopric, we had enough "talkers". So when the opportunity came to make a change, the Lord put Ed Peterson's name in front of me... I believe he was the Sunday School president at the time and I think in the Elders quorum. After receiving the necessary approvals, I stopped by his house and extended the call to be second counselor in the Port Orchard First Ward Bishopric. I think he was a bit surprised, but thankfully he accepted the call, and his presence changed our bishopric meetings--for the better.

Whenever Pete was given an assignment, he took it immediately and ran with it.

Back in those days we had ward building fund and budget assessments that we needed to raise. When a ward dinner was determined necessary to help in this effort, Pete got the assignment, and success of the event was guaranteed. He had a way of getting everyone on board to help... the Relief Society would bring the food, the Melchizedek priesthood quorums would set up the tables, and Pete would organize the program. We had ward auctions and cake walks, Pete would get people to donate and then we would hold the auction in conjunction with a ward dinner. We seemed to always raise the money we needed. In addition to the fund raising activities, as bishop I would call people in and ask them to set a goal on what they could contribute. The members came through... In addition to all the other contributions they made, the Petersons were willing to commit to a generous goal and were always faithful in all their contributions.

Pete and I have been close friends ever since. He always was one to buy new cars when the one he had would get above 70,000 miles. I was their home teacher and happened to mention I was in the market for a car since our van was coming to the end of its useful life... He said... "I will give you a good deal on my Chevy Lumina"... He said drive it home and talk to Linda... I did and the next day I brought him a check for $7000 and became the proud of owner of the Lumina. I still have the car, it now has 254,000 miles on it. One day, after we moved out of the ward, he saw me in the car in the Church parking lot. He said, "what's that hitch doing on the back of "my" car". I had bought a small utility trailer and had a hitch put on .... without getting his permission...

Pete is a self made carpenter and has built and sold a number of homes. I was in the middle of an addition to our home on Villa Carmel. And was stuck on how to knock out a wall, cutting the upper plate in a difficult location where a saw could not reach. One day when Pete was in our house, I showed him my dilemma. He said... "do you have a 1 inch drill,”… yes, “well then problem solved. Just drill out the part of the plate you cannot reach with a saw"... Yep it was a trick that I have used several times since.

One day I asked him how he learned how to build houses. He said, I drive around and watch homes that are under construction and after the crew goes home at night, I go through the house and look to see how they solved the problems and learn from observation. When that doesn't work, I pray about it and the Lord gives me the answer. That's the kind of closeness he has with the Lord.

Oh... and we can't forget his lumberman skills. Whenever the ward had a wood cutting project --and there were lots of these projects--you could count on Pete being there with his chainsaw, whipping through the logs, cutting up chunks so the brethren could split them into firewood. He loves to burn wood and always has a shed or two jammed full of nice dry wood that he had cut years ahead of needing it. In addition, for years he provided shed space and much wood for the "bishop's storehouse" for those in need of firewood in the ward.

Ed loved to drop trees and was pretty good at it. I had a couple of trees at a rental that were causing me a constant roof maintenance problem and needed to be dropped. I told Pete about it one day. He said, well let's go look at it. The two problem trees were in the backyard, fairly close to the house. He said.. "well when do you want me to drop them for you." I said, "Can you do that?" "Sure." We set a date. He came over and started on the tree (now these were fairly big trees) to the west and was going to drop it to the east, parallel to house. But I was east of the tree he was working on and not aware that his saw was so sharp, he cut thru it quickly and hollered "timberrrrrr". I ducked just in time behind the second tree. His tree came crashing down on both sides of the tree I was behind. I am sure he got a kick out of that one... I learned my lesson and stayed well clear when I heard his chainsaw working in the future.

After moving out of town, I came to Port Orchard to work on one of our rentals. I would try to bring all my tools, but invariably, I would need tools that I had not brought, no matter if it was a ladder, shovel, rake, saw or whatever, I stopped by his house and he was always happy to loan it, and have a number of fun laughs about past times together.

Ed "Pete" Peterson is a true saint and I hope to always count him as a good friend.”

Ed is survived by his wife, Linda, sons Darrel Peterson and wife Edie of Port Orchard, Rickie Peterson and grandson Cody Peterson of Union Gap, Washington; step-daughters Erin Jenne of Budapest, Hungary, Julie Newell and husband Garth stationed at Camp Humphreys in South Korea, grandsons Kesley, Dallin, Josiah, Elijah, Ammon, and Nathaniel Newell; and brother Vernon Peterson and wife Helen of Duchesne, Utah, and many nieces and nephews. His parents, sister Leona Byrd, brothers Alfred, Weldon, Loren, and Don Peterson predeceased him.