Richard E. “Dick” Peterson, professor emeritus of mathematics who joined the University of Dayton faculty in 1960, died June 23. He was 93.
Peterson was a 1955 graduate of Hiram College and received his Master of Science degree from Purdue University in 1957; he started teaching for UD soon after.
In 1966, he became assistant dean of the College of Arts and Sciences under Brother Leonard A. Mann, S.M ’36.
Dean Emeritus Paul J. Morman ’65 worked with Peterson during the last years of Peterson’s appointment in the dean’s office.
Peterson worked with students — advising them on classes, but also meeting with them when they were failing a course or on academic probation. It was hard work, Morman said, but Peterson had an easygoing style that put students at ease.
“He had a sense of humor and empathy for the student, while being firm when he needed to be firm,” Morman said. “He lived his life and career in service to UD.”
Peterson was director of the first Freshman Orientation Week, held in 1966. An editorial in the Flyer News reported it a success: “Richard Peterson and his committee should be commended on a difficult job well done. The success of this first year seems to assure that future freshman classes will have the benefit of the committee’s program. In fact, the freshmen were so well oriented to campus when the upper-classmen arrived that some of them found themselves giving information and advice to the sophomores.”
Through the years, he offered leadership and service to committees looking at athletics financing, student retention, registration streamlining, interdisciplinary coursework, and student rights and responsibilities, among others. He took special interest in improving the quality of the student experience.
He was quoted in the April 11, 1980, Flyer News as saying, “Retaining students is a campus-wide responsibility. The attitude that the institution exists to serve students should permeate the entire University — in chief administrative offices, staff offices, classrooms and the serving line in the cafeteria.”
Jerry Strange, emeritus professor of mathematics, worked with Peterson for most of Strange’s 40-year career at UD.
“I never met anyone who liked to teach calculus more than him,” Strange said. “I believe he taught a calculus class for a number of years after he retired from full time. I think he had a compulsion to teach calculus."
Strange said Peterson was very devoted to his wife, Janet, and their four children.
“The world needs more Dick Petersons.”
Peterson left his position in the dean’s office and returned to teaching in the early 1990s. He retired as professor emeritus in 1998 and continued to teach in a part-time role.
Peterson is preceded in death by his wife. He is survived by children Dan Peterson, Douglas Peterson ’89, Joni Sullivan ’89 and David Peterson ’88, and their families.