Don H. Peterson

02/05/1928 - 08/11/2025

The full and rich life of Don H. Peterson ended on August 11, 2025 in Alexandria, Virginia, at the age of 97. He was born in Jamestown, New York to descendants of Swedish immigrants, Harold and Doris Peterson. Don was raised by his father's parents, in addition to his mother. Living during schooling years with his grandparents, including working with his grandfather, a butcher, at the Jamestown market Don graduated from Celoron High School Magna Cum Laude, and served as class president for three years. He enlisted and was selected to attend the Army's Specialized Training Program at Rutgers University before deployment to Hokkaido, Japan in 1946 with the occupation forces, supervising land based flight training for pilots and attained the rank of Sergeant.
Upon return to the U.S. he used the G.I. Bill to attend Syracuse University, graduating with a major in Political Science and commenced study for a Masters degree at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. During an ad hoc trip to Washington, DC with a classmate, Don was offered a place in the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) first management training program in 1951, and after initial training and assignments in Washington, DC, was assigned to the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) with an initial assignment as chief of the Saigon bureau, from 1952-1954, during which time the country was controlled by the French government.
Upon return to the States, Don met Anna Kovaleff, a recent Stanford University graduate who was interviewing with the CIA for a new position. After a whirlwind courtship, they married in 1956. Almost immediately the just-married couple headed for Tokyo for Don's next assignment as bureau chief. Their first son, David, was born in 1957. From 1958-1960 he served as deputy chief on Okinawa, where their second son, Christopher, was born in 1960. The young family lived on the island nation of Cyprus next for four years, 1960-1962 and 1964-1966, as deputy chief and then chief of bureau. Back in the U.S. and the family's Mt. Vernon area home, Don assumed several varying executive positions and rose to Director, Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) and attained the SIS-4 level while overseeing a large organization with monitoring stations around the world, before retiring in 1980.
During his time in service, Don attended the Industrial College of the Armed Forces (ICAF) and the Federal Executive Institute executive program. In recognition of his contributions and long service to our country, Don was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. After retirement, Don had a brief stint with a startup intelligence gathering for-profit organization, and then started Cardinal Birding Tours, which took interested bird watchers primarily to Florida on week long trips. Don had a life long fascination with birding and over the course of his life and travels observed and identified 500 different species in the wild.
A New York Times article about the growing village movement of seniors aging in place caught his wife Anna's eye, and she and Don became founding members of Mount Vernon at Home. Don's interests centered on classical and jazz music, and for several decades he and his wife Anna regularly attended symphony, ballet and other performances at Washington's Kennedy Center.
He is survived by his son David (Meg) Peterson of Milford, CT and their three sons, Eric of San Francisco, CA, Michael (Kelsey), his great grandson Connor, of Milford, CT, and Tim (Molly) of New York, NY. He is also survived by son Chris (Sally) of Milan, Italy, and grandchildren Kate of Washington, DC and Max of San Francisco, CA. He is also survived by his brother Jon Peterson of Albuquerque, NM. He was predeceased by the love of his life, his wife of 65 years, Anna, his sister, Joan Shevory of Jamestown, NY, and his brother, Phil Peterson of Ft. Francis, Ontario. The family of children and grandchildren and great grandson was loving and close-knit despite the distances separating them all. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to Mount Vernon at Home, P.O. Box 7493, Alexandria, VA 22307 or www.mountvernonathome.org. There will be a private memorial service for family and friends.