Dale Peterson

Dale Peterson, age 96, passed away on September 21, 2009. He was born September 30, 1912, in Thatcher, Arizona, to Andrew Christian and Eleanor Jane Junetta (Post) Peterson. He spent his early years in Thatcher and later moved with his family to Spanish Fork, Utah, and Flagstaff, Arizona. He married Ila Brimhall Brockbank on June 11, 1941 in the Salt Lake Temple.
He was preceded in death by his wife who died on February 4, 1982, and by his brothers, Glen (Beth) and Arman (Julie), and sisters Pearl Peterson, Eleanor (Lynn) Hales, Myrtle (Vernon) Cox, and Laurel (Reed) Ellsworth.
Dale and Ila spent some of their early years apart while Dale served during WWII as a Company Commander in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in the China-Burma-India Theater. Dale and Ila were both teachers at heart and spent most of their married years in Salt Lake City. They later moved to St. George where Dale served as Dean of Applied Arts and Science at Dixie College. While there he initiated the airline stewardess school and oversaw development of the school’s new vocational education complex. They later moved to Orem, Utah, where he served as Educational Vice President of Utah Technical College at Provo. He was very instrumental in purchasing the property and developing the UTC campus at its present location in Orem where it has since become Utah Valley University.
Earlier, Dale served many years as Utah State Supervisor of Vocational Education, also as Director of the Utah Apprenticeship Council, and later State Director of Manpower Development and Training. He also served as Supervisor of Training and later Supervisor of Industrial Relations for Kennecott Copper Corporation.
Dale, Ila, and daughter Laurie returned to the same family home in Salt Lake City where Ila passed away and Laurie devotedly cared for her father in his later years.
Dale always had a love for flying, the out-of-doors, traveling, hiking, camping and hunting; however, he seemed to be jinxed by boat motors that never worked right and retreaded tires that seemed prone to multiple blow outs in remote reaches of Arizona, Utah and Nevada deserts.
He was an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and served in priesthood and auxiliary callings and as a temple officiator. Dale and Ila have five children (all surviving), Arman Brockbank (Birgitte) Peterson of Salt Lake City, Utah; Catherine Cranmer of Rexburg, Idaho; D. Gary (Heidi) Peterson of Rigby, Idaho; Ila Laurie Peterson of Salt Lake City, Utah; and Mary Joyce (Cary) Leach of Upland, California. They have 22 grandchildren and 25 great-grandchildren.
Services will be held on Friday, September 25, 2009, in the Monument Park 9th Ward Chapel, 1565 South Foothill Drive (2400 East), Salt Lake City, Utah at 11:00 a.m.. Friends may visit with the family prior to services that morning at the same building beginning at 10:00 a.m. Interment City Cemetery, Salt Lake City, Utah.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Brockbank Education Foundation (http://www.brockbankeducationfund.org/), supporting education of women in South Africa, c/o of Robert Webber, 3588 North 100 East, Provo, UT 84604.