Roland "Pete" Peterson, BHS 1939, Teacher/Coach

Roland "Pete" Peterson, BHS 1939, Teacher/Coach

ROLAND "PETE" PETERSON

Home In Heaven - July 31, 2011

Mr. Roland "Pete" Peterson, much loved BHS teacher for decades, passed away on Sunday afternoon, July 31. He was 89. His 90th birthday would have been later this year. Mr. Peterson had been living in Thousand Oaks for the past two to three years, near his older daughter, Linda Peterson Everett. His health had continued to decline during that time.

Roland Peterson was born the end of 1921 to Emanuel and Elizabeth Peterson. Both of his parents were originally from Sweden. He was the fifth of six children, four older brothers, Harold, Arnold, Reinold, and Paul, and a younger sister, Ruth. All of them pre-decease Roland. His loving wife, Kiva, passed away on February 17, 2005, after nearly 60 years of marriage.

Roland and Kiva and their family moved into the Peterson Family home at Sixth St. and Walnut Ave. in Burbank in 1961. Roland's father, a building contractor, had built that home, which Roland had also grown up in. He lived there for about 47 years as an adult until moving to Thousand Oaks. Roland's "Pa", Emanuel Peterson, was the founder of Emanuel Evangelical Free Church in Burbank in 1941, located at Harvard Rd. and Fifth St. The family would walk to church each Sunday from their home at Sixth and Walnut. Many of the Peterson Family were still involved in that church until recent years.

Like three of his older brothers and his younger sister, Roland was a graduate of Burbank High School. He graduated in 1939. Then after college he returned to BHS as a teacher and coach, where he remained for over thirty years until his retirement.

In the 1940's and 1950's besides teaching he was also a BHS football coach. Throughout all of his years at BHS he was a history teacher, loved and admired by countless of his students over the decades. His sense of humor always came through in his classes, too. Every year of his thirty plus years at BHS , he was always one of the most loved, if not the most in some years, of the entire faculty. His students loved to be in his class.

Roland Peterson is survived by his children, Linda (BHS '67), Louanne (BHS '70), and Dan, four grandsons, a granddaughter, a great-grandson, son-in-law, Bob Everett, two sisters-in-law, Mary Peterson of Visalia and Virginia Peterson of San Marcos, and a number of nieces and nephews and their families.

The family is planning to have a Memorial Service sometime this Fall.