Gus Peterson was born in Oregon in 1922 to a wheat farm family and grew up on a small cattle farm. He is married to Ruth and they have 3 sons. His formal education ended with the 12th grade. He graduated from a small town High School that graduated 5 seniors in 1940. He served as an infantry mechanic in the Army, which involved specialized training, and he took advantage of many short courses when ever possible. He has been a certified Emergency Medical Technician, and served on the local ambulance crew for 14 years. He joined the volunteer Fire Department in the city where he went to work for the local Ford dealership, upon his return from the army in 1946. He worked up to Captain of the No. 7 Company, a Fire department of 2 companies, in a town of 2200 persons. He left there in 1954 and moved back to there of his upbringing, a town of less than 200 people. He organized a Volunteer Fire department there and was Fire Chief for 25 years and is now the Assistant Chief. He worked for the local Electric Utility, as Fleet Mechanic for 29 years. until he retired in 1986.
He is very enthusiastic about the things that the National Organization is accomplishing and has plans for and wants to continue o help achieve those goals. He feels that we should be strong on the aspect of the educational opportunities of our hobby. As time goes by, we have more and more people who have no way of knowing how we lived, and how things were done before the main place to get milk and eggs was the supermarket. EDGE&TA is in a unique position regarding the educational aspect of the hobby, where else can one find the golden opportunity we have it extend this knowledge.
Gus served as a National Director from 1991 until 2002. He continues as an advisor and serves as the National and Regional show coordinator with the branches. He is a member of 5 branches (9, 12, 15, 21, and 67). He has not served as a branch officer simply because the nearest branch, the one he calls “home” is over 200 miles away. He attends as many branch meetings as he can, even though it usually involves a 2 day trip. He has attended 21 National shows since joining his first club in 1975.
His EDGE&TA foals and objectives are to advise the Board of Directors on issues that are beneficial to the entire membership, to improve the communications between the branches and the National Board of Directors/Officers and to uphold the principles for which EDGE&TA was established.
His community activities consists of; a member of the Patrons of the Husbands (Grange), Volunteer fireman, served as ambulance service member and has taught Red Cross first aid and at one time was certified to teach CPR, served on the local school board, and is a member of the Grant County Sheriff’s Posse, a volunteer organization of 50 members mainly for search and rescue operations.