Fredrick Adolf Petersen died Tuesday evening, Sept. 9 in Lexington. Pete was born in Chicago, Ill. on August 19, 1913. He grew up there, graduated from the University of Illinois and went on to get his graduate degree from Ohio State University. He worked for the University of Illinois as a research engineer in the ceramics department, then moved to Cleveland Heights, Ohio in 1952 where he worked for Hunter Thomas Associates, eventually became president of that company and retired in 1978. He was a devout member of the Lutheran Missouri Synod church his entire life.

Pete traveled extensively with Gladys, his wife of 61 years, and summered for over 30 years in Chilmark, where he spent his best moments racing his sunfish, the Flying Frog, in the Wednesday and Saturday Menemsha Pond races until he was in his late 80s. But a complete description of Pete is very hard to pin down in a paragraph.

He loved sweet rolls, dry martinis, Gladys’ pies, licorice and ice cream, peonies and sunshine cake and Christmas cookies; and above all else, his family. He was an eternal optimist, a stoic, a gardener, honest and demanding, strong, proud of his Norwegian heritage, an early recycler, a sweeper, gin rummy player, murder mystery reader, Chicago Cubs fan and football fan. He delighted in sunsets and the moon, he was stubborn, a life-long learner who kept up with the details of the world always. His life was full to the end, and surrounded by family.

Pete is and will be missed by his daughters — his girls — Karen, Ingrid and Kristin, his grandchildren Kari, Rachel and Emily, great-grandchildren Anna and Erik, his sons in law Dennis, Fritz and Bruce.