Richard J. Peterson

Good Morning! Richard John David Peterson was born on June 12, 1935 in San Francisco, California.  He was the 3rd of four children Joseph, Alma, Richard and Alex (deceased).   They grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and after high school Dick attended San Francisco State.  He married his high school sweetheart, Cherie and they had four wonderful children, Richard, Jr., Laura, Michael(deceased) and Lisa.  The marriage ended in the 1950’s, but his love for the children was always strong. At 17, Dick was hired by an insurance company to proof legal documents and insurance policies which he enjoyed.  He had a mind for numbers and could remember everything he read and when he read it.  He ended up choosing retail management as a career and loved it.  He always said no two days were ever the same and there was always a challenge waiting. All that he did in his business life would prove to benefit his entire life. In 1967, Dick was working for a company in Albany, California called White Front.  He ran the furniture store within building.  While at Albany Dick meet Linda.  Linda’s grandmother wanted to buy television set and visited the same set daily.  After several weeks Linda went over to apologize for her Grandma pestering him on a daily basis.  Dick was very kind and said he enjoyed talking to her.  Soon after Dick got promoted to General Store Manager of the Flag Ship Store in San Francisco.  The Albany store had a “going away” party for him and it was at a restaurant that had a swing band and no one was dancing.  Dick asked Linda to dance and that was that.  It was dancing that brought them together.  They started dating and then Dick got the news that White Front was closing the West and putting their efforts in Topps Department Stores in the Mid-West.  Dick was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio to run the training store.  Once settled in Cleveland, Dick asked Linda to join him and they were soon married.    After several months Dick received a call from J.M. Fields with an offer he couldn’t refuse and they were off to New Jersey where they lived for several years.  Dick was given the store in Atlantic City and joined the Exchange Club.  It was before, during and after gambling came to Atlantic City and Dick was involved with many business owners, politicians and met wonderful friends.  Dick developed a scholarship program for the Exchange Club and the city voted him “Man of the Year for Atlantic City” which was quite an honor.  He was also involved with the Miss America pageant and the USO show which for years was always held in Atlantic City.  You can imagine what a hardship it was to greet the 50 candidates.  Dick and Linda also got to see the USO show before it went overseas.     In 1977, Dick received another call from Dart Drug Stores in the Washington DC area with another offer he couldn’t refuse.  He was asked to managed their largest store for several months and then he was promoted to District Manager and ran 16 stores that included stores in Maryland, DC and Virginia.   He loved his job, but his heart issues caught up with him and had to have his second by-pass surgery in 1987.  He was told he couldn’t continue the stress level that retail brings.  Linda tried to tell the doctor that it wasn’t retail that brought the stress level – Dick brought his with him. Linda worked for John Kincaid and met the wonderful people in the square dance world.  John and Peg tried to get them involved and Dick would have none of it until he saw round dancing.  He said immediately that he would love to learn and that in he did.  It wasn’t a year later before they were hooked and Peg Kincaid backed Dick into a corner and he agreed to be Festival Directors in 1991 and the journey began.  Dick said his goal was to bring the East Coast together.  He said that Festivals were too localized and he wanted to bring everyone together to support each other.  With this “Big Picture” and much to John and Peg’s regret Dick was unleased.  Dick and Linda traveled and talked to thousands of people and invited them to WASCA and tried to support as many events as they could.  He wore out at least 5 vans. Next he set his sights on making Square Dancing the State Dance of Maryland.  He contracted Leo Greene, Mike Miller and Donald Schaefer to see what we needed to do.  He drew up the paperwork and with help from the dance community we showed up in mass at the State House and with much opposition pleaded our case.  Dick got a call that it was going to be denied, so Dick called Linda at work and asked her to come home, change into square dance clothes and he wanted to talk to Senator Rawlings.  Dick plead the case again and told them that if they backed our Bill #43 and made Square Dancing the official state dance of Maryland that it would show the world that Maryland was behind us trying to bring the National Square Dance to Baltimore again.  The next morning, Dick got a phone call the Bill #43 had passed with no opposition.  That meant that Dick was on the loose again and wrote to the President of the National Executive Committee and asked how to apply to bring a National to Maryland.  He was off to the races again and this time it wasn’t just a few of friends, now it was thousands of friends.  With Dick’s knack of seeing the qualities in people he was able to choose the right people for the right jobs to bring an all volunteer, gave up their lives for at least 5 years, hard-working, fun loving, creative team that managed to put on the best convention that the City of Baltimore has ever seen.  The best thing about the team of people he surrounding himself with was that there was not a yes man in the group.  They all had strong opinions and were willing to share them, but Dick would listen and admit that he had been had with his little shake of the head and smile.   Dick didn’t always have to be right, just convinced. This group managed to answer every dream Dick and Linda could possibly think of – from getting the Tall Ships to skip Philadelphia and come on Baltimore 2000, to making Dick Harbor Master for Baltimore and having our committee invited and honored on the USS Gettysburg, having a fly over of the Blue Angels, getting the President’s Own Marine Band with the Alexandria Chorus at our closing ceremonies, having Trac Adkins and Neal McCoy as our show, taking 4 bus loads of dancers to Rose Garden Ceremony at the White House, copywriting Baltimore 2000 and getting us a cruise for 200 free for our committee to enjoy and this could go on and on. Dancing played a huge part in his life and he loved every minute of it.  He loved people and he loved to have fun and found both in the dance world.  He enjoyed all of the organizations – WASCA, VASARDA, MDSDF and the National Executive Committee.  After Baltimore 2000, he felt honored to be able to be advisors to the Long Beach National Convention and the New England National Convention.  The other side of Dick was family and he was blessed.    Living on opposite coasts made it hard to visit, but he would travel at least once a year to see family.  Dick loved his computer and kept up with everyone between visits.  He loved them deeply, Richard, Jr. and his wife Debi, Laura and her husband John, Lisa and her wife Michelle, and their children Richard III (Crystal), David, Jamie(Michael), Sean(Robin), Erich(Sara) and Jennifer(Heather) and all of their children Nikkolle, Hannah, Megan, Harold, Skyler, Sophia, Abigael, Kelsy, Destiny, Caily and Trinity.    Dick also loved Linda’s family and after he married Linda her mom never took Linda’s side again.  If Dick said it, he was right.  He was well loved by Linda’s sister and brother, Sheron and her husband Bert, Paul and his wife Sherry and their children Rhonda, Laura(Steve) and Mike(Kathy), Brent, Steven(Samantha), Sherisse(Alex), Sharlene(Steven), Sharolyn(Mike) and Sheryl(Tom) and all of their children.  Two of his favorite sayings were “Love and Laugh Every Day” and the second was “Family, Friends and Freedom”.  He will be missed.