Duane Jay Peterson passed away on Sept. 22, 2019, at his home in Georgetown, Idaho. He was born October 22,1938 in his present home in Georgetown, Bear Lake, Idaho to Alvin Jay and Josephine Stoddard Peterson. He attended Georgetown Elementary School and later graduated from Montpelier High School.
From his youth, Duane had a natural love for music and learned to sing sitting on his father's knee behind a team of horses. Later on he learned to play a variety of musical instruments and played the french horn in the high school band when in the fourth grade. Along the way he also learned to play the guitar and sing to his own strum. Before he graduated from grade school he learned to play the sousaphone of which he played all four years in high school band and later in his first year at Utah State in the concert band as well as the marching band. During the latter part of his first year of college at Utah State University Duane started dating a girl back home by the name of Judith Ann Davis. He always thought that it was sublime trickery. Her father was teaching a Sunday school class that she was in. What her father didn't know however was that this nice little Mormon boy wasn't as clean and pure as they thought. He had started doing a little smoking and drinking on the Q T. One weekend while home from school he attended a dance about as plastered as a guy could get. He was dancing with a friend when all of a sudden he heard "would you like to trade dancing partners?" and as he turned around, there was Judy. He did a quick double take and you can let your imagination run from there. Later a date to see the Ten Commandments seemed to smooth it all out. As time went on and the word of wisdom issues become resolved they got engaged to be married. After he served a mission, that is. He served in the Gulf States Mission. He returned home November 10, 1960 and they were married in the Logan Temple November 29, 1960. The honeymoon consisted of a movie in Provo, Utah called "North to Alaska" starring John Wayne. After that it was back to the plow. They both got jobs which didn't last very long and after one such it was finally agreed that Judy would go to Logan and if she could find employment they would move to Logan where Duane could continue his education . She found a job with Sears and they took the plunge.
While at college Duane's major study changed back and forth until he finally settled on Social Work. He graduated in the Spring of 1964 and took his first employment with the State Reform School. He later transferred to juvenile corrections out of Rupert, Idaho. After a couple of years he received a grant to attend graduate school at the University of Utah, where he graduated in the Spring of 1970.
After four years of marriage there were no signs of children. After extensive research with doctors he and Judy finally arrived at adoption. In the course of the next eight years they adopted four children; two boys and two girls; Radene, Dee Jay, Jolene, and Shane Thomas.
Being parents was a great experience, but quite unlike they had planned. They thought that if you raised children in a gospel home that they would tum out to be little robots of the gospel plan. Well guess what. Not so. They found out that each child was different with an agenda of their own and demanding the agency to exercise that agenda through their own agency. This caused a lot of good times and other times with some special kinds of challenges. All in all things have turned out quite well with some growth yet to be experienced.
During the 57 years of marriage, Duane experienced many employment opportunities and he and Judy ended up moving forty-two times in forty-six years. Not bad with each blaming the other, but the real truth is that they both enjoyed the trip. During those many moves, Duane had approximately, 15 different jobs, ten of them being social work related.
During his social work career, Duane worked in juvenile corrections in the state of Idaho, ten years with LDS Social Services out of Denver Colorado and mental health in the state of Wyoming. In their latter years of marriage, they developed their own private counseling practice in Clearfield, Utah, named Peterson Counseling Services where they specialized in sexual offender therapy. From there they moved to Texas where they were called to serve a mission together in the Rapid City, South Dakota Mission. The primary populace consisted of working with the Lamanite people.
After their mission they retired and moved back to Georgetown Idaho to assist Duane's ailing mother and after her passing they continued to live in the home where Duane was born and raised. They have continued to live there ever since.
Duane is survived by his children: Radene (Todd) Rindlisbacher, Dee Jay (Linda) Peterson, Jolene Smith, and Shane Thomas (Kim) Peterson, 16 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Alvin Jay and Josephine (Stoddard) Peterson, his wife, Judith Ann (Davis) Peterson and two sisters, Shirley (Peterson) Arneson and Gloria (Peterson) Higgins.
A viewing will be held Sept. 28th at 9 a,m. followed by the funeral at 11 a.m. in the Georgetown LDS Chapel.