Dan Peterson was a long-time active member of the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild. He was board president from 1991 to 1992 and served on the board from 1991 through 1994 and again from 1997-1998 and 2008-2009, whenever he was needed to hold the organization together. He received the Guild’s lifetime achievement award in 2005.
Dan taught history at Seattle Central Community College from 1966 to 1993. He graduated from the University of Washington with a B. A. in history in 1951. He won a Rotary Fellowship to the University of London School of Economics and later an M.A. in history. He taught history at Cheney and Bremerton high schools, then at Olympic Junior College and Highline Community College before teaching at SCCC. He served as chair of the Social Sciences Division there for more than a decade. After retiring from SSCC, he also taught at North Seattle Community, Seattle University, and Eastern University.
In retirement Dan enjoyed serving as historian on the Columbia River Boat Queen of the West for seven years, providing interpretation of regional events and locations to tourists while traveling on the stern-wheeler from Portland, Oregon to Lewiston, Idaho and then back to the mouth of the river at Astoria. He was an advisor and editor for Roots and Branches, a history of religion in Washington. He died December 19, 2019 in Seattle.
“Not only was [Dan] a fount of knowledge of regional history—including stories of growing up while Grand Coulee Dam was being built—but he was a friendly, warm and delightful person always with a twinkle in his eye,” says Charles LeWarne, with whom Dan served in the Guild.