Richard LeRoy Peterson passed away the evening of September 5, 2019 at home in Salt Lake City after a long rich life. Richard was born in his family home in Ephraim Utah to LeRoy Edwards Peterson and Hanna Rosella Christensen, on September 24, 1933. Richard grew up helping out at his father's Texaco gas stations in Sanpete County. He graduated from Snow High School in 1951. He was drafted and served in the Armed Forces during the Korean War as a Private First Class Petroleum Storage Specialist. Upon returning home to Ephraim Utah after the war, Richard was called to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the British Mission. After his mission, he moved to Salt Lake City to attend Salt Lake Technical College where he met a young nursing student Jeanette Catherine Manwaring. They were sealed in the Salt Lake Temple on April 15, 1960.
After graduating with an Associates Degree in electronics, Richard worked at Hill Air Force Base as an Electronics Technician, where he repaired all manner of equipment like radar systems and communication gear in support of the base operations. Richard ran Dick's Shop on evenings and weekends. He would fix any type of house-hold appliances, specializing in in-home repair. Richard was a super friendly man and never had to advertise his service, always having more repair calls than time to do them, word of mouth spread his honest and friendly service. Age and health problems finally prevented him from continuing his more than 50 years of home appliance repairs. Richard was the family handyman and took care of many tasks for his mom and the rest of the extended family too. His motto was "Nothing is too broken to fix".
Richard loved his family and enjoyed vacation time with them more than anything. Those vacations included trips to many of the National Parks in the west, Yellowstone, Disneyland, World's Fair and annual camping trips to Bear Lake and the canyons above Sanpete County. He enjoyed motorcycling with family in and around all destinations.
Richard was an active member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and served in many capacities, including Sunday School teacher, Priesthood Quorum Presidencies and faithful Home Teacher. Everyone enjoyed his homemade root beer at many ward dinners and functions.
Richard was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Ronald, Glen, John Christensen, Dee Christensen, and daughter-in-law Valerie and is survived by his wife of 59 years, Jeanette, sister Carol Carpenter, Bruce (Cathy) Peterson, children Gwen (Gary) Schwarz, Scott Peterson, Bryan (Ann) Peterson, Shelly (Earl) Boyce, grandchildren Carly Jensen, Ayden (Kayla) Jensen, Talon (Katelyn) Peterson, Kamree Peterson, Zaily Peterson, Whitney (Sam) Watson, Brianna Peterson, Kristine Peteson, Sierra Peterson, Milena Boyce, Kyli Boyce, and great-grandchildren EllieMay Golden and Henry Watson.
The Family would like to thank the staff at the VA Medical Center in Salt Lake City for the excellent care given to their father over the last years of his life and to the personnel of Salt Lake City Fire Station #6 for their quick and timely responses to Richard's many needs over the last few years.
Services are to be held at the 26th Ward Chapel at 1145 West 500 South Salt Lake City Utah 84104 on September 16, 2019 at 11:00 am. A viewing will be held prior to services from 9:30 to 10:30 am and also September 15, 2019 from 6:00 to 8:00 pm at the same location. Internment at the Ephraim City Cemetery at approximately 2:30pm.
