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Dr. Myron D. Peterson • 1933 - 2002 Dr. Myron D. Peterson, 69, 6511-16th Ave. NW, a practicing
physician in Minot for some 40 years, died Wednesday, Dec. 18,
2002, in a Minot hospital. He was born on a farm in Ward County on April 17, 1933, a son of Emil and Clarice (Tarvestad) Peterson. He was raised on a farm near Norwich and received his elementary and junior high school education in Norwich and attended high school at Dakota Lutheran in Minot, Granville High and Oak Grove in Fargo. In 1955, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. For a period, he considered engineering as a field of study and spent time working on construction projects with his father and a brother. Instead, he pursued medicine as a career. Dr. Peterson obtained a bachelor of science degree at the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, in 1957. He received his medical degree from Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago in 1959. He interned at Evanston, IL Hospital for one year and then served two years in the U.S Army. During his enlistment, he attended Brook Army Medical School in San Antonio, TX, from July to September 1960. He served with the Army in Germany from 1960 to 1962, stationed in Stuttgart, Germany as a medical officer. Following his discharge from military service, he returned to Minot and was on the staff at Trinity Hospital as a general medical practitioner from 1962 until 1965. He then spent four years as a resident in orthopedic surgery at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, returning to Minot to practice orthopedic surgery from 1969 until the present. He was a co-founder with Dr. Stanley W. Keck of Orthopedic Surgery Associates, Minot. He was past chief of staff of Trinity's medical staff, a member of Trinity's Board of Governors and a past secretary of the board. He was a board member of the First District Health Unit in Minot for 18 years and had been its president for the last two years. He was a member of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Carrier Advisory Committee, the Medicare Carrier Advisory Committee and the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons Advisory Committee. He also was a member of the American and North Dakota medical associations, the Northwest District Medical Society, the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the Norwegian-American Orthopedic Society, Mid-America Orthopedic Society, North Dakota Orthopedic Society, the Elks Lodge, Sons of Norway, First Lutheran Church and the Scandinavian Heritage Association (SHA). His odyssey with the Stave Church may have begun in 1990, when he became a member of the SHA.The following year, he was named chairman of the group's Stave Church Committee, a position he held until the project's completion and inauguration in October 2001. In 1993 and 1994, he was president of the SHA. Over the years, he made close to 20 trips to Norway. On 10 of these journeys, he focused on Stave Church research. His concern from the beginning of the project was that it had to be done well, that there would be no place for mediocrity in the replication of the Gol Stave Church. (Gol Stavkirke, built in the mid-1200s and moved to Oslo, Norway, in 1884). He built a scale model replica of the church exactly to detail, with 15,000 hand-cut shingles and carved dragon heads, crosses and other details. He also made frequent trips to review the project with contractors in Minnesota and Wisconsin who were hired for the project. Peterson's sons, Steve and Scott, worked on building the church. On May 16, 1993, he married Gail Leigh of Minot. In addition to the involvement they shared with the Stave Church project, they owned and operated the Field & Stream Restaurant for nine years. She survives, along with their eight children, including seven from previous marriages. The children are, daughters, Karen LouiseWard, Gravois Mills, MO, Patricia Lynn Earley (Patrick), Duluth, MN, Stephany Lyn Peterson, Grand Forks, ND, Tanya Marie Hennix and Jana Carole Hennix, both of Minot; sons, Scott Duane (Renee) Peterson and Jonathan Myron Delano Peterson, all of Minot, and Steven Delano (Shonda), Lapeer, MI; seven grandchildren, Heather Northrop, Alicia Larson, Dylan Ward, Mindy Peterson, Zachary Peterson, Riley Scott Thompson and Claire Elizabeth Earley; one great-grandchild, Ava Northrop; sister, Grace Johnson, Minot; brother, Earl Peterson (Charlotte), Medford, OR. He was preceded in death by his parents, his first wife Carolyn Hull Peterson, an infant son, Steven Peterson, and an infant sister, Grace Peterson. Funeral: Monday at 11 a.m. at First Lutheran Church Minot. Prayer Service: Sunday at 1 p.m. at the Stave Church for members of the family and of the Stave Church Committee. Reviewal: Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Thompson-Larson Funeral Home, Minot, Sunday from 2:00 p.m. until 5:00 p.m. and Monday at the church from 10 a.m. until the service. Memorials preferred to the Stave Church or Donor's choice.
Eulogist: Terry Hoff, President of Trinity Health Music: Hardy Lieberg, vocalist, "How Great Thou
Art" "The Lord's Prayer" "Amazing Grace"
#448 "God of Our Fathers" #567 Active Bearers: George Officer, Terry Hoff, Roald Mattson, Ernie Selland, Allen Larson, Dr. David Uthus, Dr. Alexandre Kindy and Dr. Bernard Varberg Honorary Bearers: Board Members of the First District
Health Unit, Trinity and the Scandinavian Heritage Association. |