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Obituary: Robert Peterson

July 30, 1927 – February 13, 2023

Robert Keith Peterson died February 13, 2023, at his home in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 95. He was born in Denver on July 30, 1927, and brought to Grand County when he was only a few days old. Between 1927 and 1950, he lived on several ranches in the Fraser River Valley, where his father, Axel August Peterson, was a homesteader and rancher. Bob served in the United States Army for two years and, thanks to the GI Bill, attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he met and married Nancy Wentworth Taylor of Akron, Ohio, and received a B.S. in Engineering Physics (1951). He also received an M.S. in Electronics Engineering from Cal Tech (1955).

He and his family settled in Phoenix, Arizona, where he worked as an electronics engineer for several companies in the greater Phoenix area, most often at Goodyear Aerospace and most memorably at Wiley Electronics, before commencing a long and fruitful retirement, in which he taught himself French and Russian. In later years, he wrote: first, a memoir of life in Grand County, Colorado (Fraser Valley Memoirs); then a biography of Mark Fletcher, Sheriff of Grand County from 1925 to 1945 (A Western Sheriff); a murder mystery in which Sheriff Fletcher was cast as the detective (The Sheriff Takes a Walk); and essays on life in Grand County (Snows of Yesteryear). He also published an historic picture album of the Fraser River Valley and helped edit and publish a biography of Leota (“Tillie”) Gingery (1914-2008), a long-time resident of Grand County (Tillie Remembers). He was a frequent visitor to Grand County and a staunch supporter of causes dear to Grand County.

He is survived by his son, Keith Peterson, his daughter, Denise Powell, and three granddaughters, Sarah Powell, Sylvia Peterson, and Emily Powell. No memorial service is contemplated; in lieu of flowers, the family request that donations be made to the Grand County Historical Association, a 501(c)(3) organization, Post Office Box 165, Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado 80451, (970) 725-3939, e-mail shanna@grandcountyhistory.org.


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