Dr Roald A. Peterson's Obituary
Dr. Roald A. Peterson, 90 of Fayetteville, AR passed away Friday,
January 9, 2004 in Fayetteville, AR, of pneumonia .He was born March
31, 1913 in Watford City, ND to Sigvart and Elena (Carlsen) Peterson.
He was the 9th of 11 children ,2 born to his parents in Norway before
they immigrated and homestead on a large farm in ND.Both his Norwegian
heritage and being raised on a cattle farm had a profound influence on
him. He was 2 months and 22 days away from his 91st birthday.
Dr. Peterson was an Adjunct Professor of Agronomy at the University of
Arkansas, a member of the Society for Range Management, Sigma Xi, The
Scientific Research Society, the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in
Fayetteville, and Partners for the Americas .
He received both his Bachelors and Masters Degrees in Botany from the
University of North Dakota, Fargo, ND, and his PhD in Plant Ecology from
the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN.
He is survived by two daughters; Hannah S. Waite, son in law Dr. Thomas
W. Waite, of Chaska, MN, Rima S. Peterson of Fayetteville, AR, two
sisters; Ruby Howard of Cottonwood, AZ, Alice Hawley of Kemah, TX, one
granddaughter; Sarah Morse of Chaska, MN, and many nephews and nieces
throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Germany and Spain, as well as
extended family members in Norway. He was preceded in death by his
beloved wife of over 40 years, Carmen, daughter, Andrea, and son,
Malcolm.
During his extensive and rich career, after the US had entered the war,
he served training WWII pilots in ground flight instruction and
meteorology at the then Army-Air Force base near Fort Worth,TX.
In the 1930's and early 40's, he was an early pioneer in integrating
cooperative work ,empowering both poor blacks and whites ,who worked
lands they did not own, throughout the South ; as well as encouraging
and helping farmers in the North to form Cooperatives that gave them
both economic and political power and clout unheard of until those days.
He worked for the US Department of Agriculture in both Range Management
and Forestry, primarily in Montana.
A little known aspect of his wonderful but often difficult life ,was
that after nearly a decade of being hounded by HUAC, and cleared before
every tribunal he was brought before, he was ultimately blacklisted by
the infamous Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn and J. Edgar Hoover group of legal
thugs, on the word of one man, the only person, among many who testified
in Washington on his behalf, friends and colleagues who knew him as an
extraordinary human being, were intimately familiar with his often
ground-breaking and vital work ,not to testify in his favor. To Dad's
great credit, he never held it against this individual, understanding
that intimidation and fear ruled the testimony of so many during those
dark days of our history.
Though this ended his work in the US, after attaining so much
international acknowledgement and recognition of his outstanding work on
almost every continent of the planet, J .Edgar Hoover was forced by then
President J.F. Kennedy, to write him a letter of apology and an
invitation to return to work in the US. He did not do so until his
retirement in 1979.
The blacklisting turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as we left the
country, and in 1953 he was appointed Director of Agriculture of the
Southern Zone of the OAS (Organization of American States) in South
America. His area of work comprised the countries of Uruguay, where we
lived and OAS headquarters were located, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and
Chile.
It was here that he met, fell in love with and in 1956 married, the
Puerto Rican beauty, Carmen S. Sanchez, who held the same Directorship
in the same countries, in what was then known as Home Economics.
He had been a single father, with a Nanny, for 6 years, to his 3
children since the loss of his first wife, Lillian Alexander, during the
devastation caused by the fallout of the HUAC investigations.
Dr. Peterson's career in South America was filled with joys, travels and
work with men and women of each country, training them in the science
and practical applications of agronomy, range management, animal
husbandry, land care, etc. to maximize good land use, better yield,
nutrition ,healthy cattle and food production.
Both he and Carmen received many awards of recognition for their
contributions from Heads of State, Secretaries of the Interior,
Ministers of Agriculture , as well as national and international
organizations too numerous to mention.
After a work trip and International congress in Australia and New
Zealand, Dr. Peterson was nominated to head a division of FAO (Food and
Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, headquartered in Rome,
Italy). He accepted the position and the family moved to Rome in 1961,
from where he worked and traveled until his last appointment in the
Dominican Republic.
It was shortly after this nomination to serve in FAO, that he was
invited by Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip to receive honors, as well
as by the King and Queen of Norway, when he and Carmen took advantage of
being there, to look up and visit the extended family, including
siblings of his parents, whom he got to talk to each other by telephone
and thus re-establish connections that had been long lost.
During those years, he did, what was probably the most impacting and
extensive work of his life.
He was the first foreigner to be invited, by the then Soviet Government
to come to The USSR and go to Outer Mongolia, working and living with
tribal peoples there, on the problem of milk
conservation/preservation...Even on his death bed he commented 'how he
had learned so much in Mongolia, not only from the people, but about
them, by watching their horses'...It was one of the highlights of his
many work-related travels, which he spoke frequently about, and which,
as an avid horseman, had especially enjoyed their small, but very fast,
adept horses.
His work with FAO, took him to every country in Africa, where he trained
and worked with teams, which hopefully today are still able to carry on
his legacy. He lived in the bush country, with Pygmy, Zulu and many
other tribal peoples and thoroughly enjoyed it...enriching our lives
with stories, photographs and artifacts particular to each tribe, still
dear to him all these years.
He traveled and lived and worked with nomadic tribes ,as well as
government officials and his teams, in what was then Persia, in Egypt,
Lebanon, Israel, Morocco and all over India...always bringing home
stories and artifacts handmade in those regions, igniting our interest
and curiosity to visit and travel them ourselves.
Dr. Peterson retired in 1979 and moved with his family to Fayetteville.
He
chose Northwest Arkansas as his final home for its peacefulness, scenic
beauty, and opportunities to do agricultural research through the
University of Arkansas. Due to his experience and continued
contributions to the field, he was named an Adjunct Professor of
Agronomy. He was one of the Arkansas-East Bolivia Partners of the
Americas, and did short-term consultancies in both Bolivia and Sierra
Leone. He was also a dedicated member of the Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship in Fayetteville, where he served as president for several
years.
The epitome of the "green thumb," he was a passionate gardener of both
vegetables and flowers throughout his life. He was well-known for his
bountiful tomato crops. During his retirement he grew and did research
on several lesser-known legumes and vegetables, including the pigeon
pea, chayote, kohlrabi, and the Jerusalem artichoke. Always an avid
reader, he enthusiastically participated in the Great Ideas and Soul
Searchers discussion groups at Butterfield Trail Village.
Memorial services will be held Saturday, January 17, 2003 at 2:00 PM in
Butterfield Trail Village in Fayetteville.
Visitation Date Time No Visitation will be held Visitation Location Service Date Time January 17, 2004 2:00 Pm Service Location Butterfield Trail Village
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