Larry Peterson

Larry Allen Peterson, age 82, of Urbandale, died peacefully Monday, August 29, 2022 at Mercy One Hospice in Johnston, Iowa.

Larry was born on June 28, 1940 at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, Iowa, to Gustav Stanley Peterson, age 27, and Bernice Theresa (Dahl), age 26. Their small family moved to Newton, IA, where his father worked for F.W. Woolworth store, then was transferred to Yankton, SD, and Eveleth, MN. Then back to Des Moines after his father was drafted into the Navy in 1944 and brother Robert (Bob) was born.

Larry had a great love of trains and books at a very young age and this lasted his lifetime. When his family moved to Boone, Iowa in 1946, he started his love of movies. His love of classical music started from “Peter and the Wolf” in grade school. He started walking around the cemetery beyond the train tracks near his home - and visited many cemeteries around the world.

Larry graduated from Roosevelt High School in 1958 and really enjoyed learning. He joined the U.S. Army Reserves at Fort Des Moines in January 1958 and was on active duty from July 1958-January 1959. Took basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO until Sept 1958, then went to Signal Corps Training School at Fort Monmouth, NJ for schooling as a Combat Photographer. After returning to Des Moines, he was assigned to 103rd Signal Corps Unit, at Fort Des Moines, as an active and inactive reservist, until January 1966.

Larry’s dad kept saying that computers would be a great future someday!! So, in January of 1960, Larry entered the American Institute of Business (AIB) for a course in IBM Data Processing. He graduated 2nd in his class and started working at State Auto Insurance as a “Tab Operator”. While he was there, he took night classes at Drake University, majoring in Business, Accounting and Insurance.

Larry’s dad kept saying that computers would be a great future someday!! So, in January of 1960, Larry entered the American Institute of Business (AIB) for a course in IBM Data Processing. He graduated 2nd in his class and started working at State Auto Insurance as a “Tab Operator”. While he was there, he took night classes at Drake University, majoring in Business, Accounting and Insurance.

In 1962, Larry started working at the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Regional Accounting offices as an IBM 1401 computer operator. In 1963, his small family (wife Rae Ann, daughter Christine) had moved to Minneapolis and he worked at American Hoist and Derrick factory in St. Paul as a Systems Analyst/Programmer. He took a part-time job at the Minneapolis airport, with North Central Airlines as a computer operator in 1964-65. He was then eligible for $3.00 airline tickets anywhere on their system. Their first plane ride was on a DC-3 to International Falls, MN and Fort Frances, Ontario. Larry then wanted to get into computer repair, so he started taking electronics and electrical night classes at Dunwoody Technical Institute and entered Control Data Institute in Minneapolis for a 1-year course in Computer Technology. He was then offered a position as a Field Service Engineer with Control Data in Los Angeles and moved his growing family (daughter Kathleen was born in 1964) to California in December 1967. Larry started flying around the Western U.S. installing and repairing computer systems. He then transferred to a Customer Engineer at Vandenberg Air Force Missile Base near Lompoc, CA. He had to maintain and repair building size computer systems, which were used by the Air Force and the U.S. space programs. He was present at many of the missile launches on the base and was on duty during some of the astronaut space rides. (Son David was born in Santa Maria in 1968).

The family moved back to Des Moines in 1969 and Larry worked for Dial Financial Corporation as a Systems Maintenance Programmer and became involved in the ground floor set-up on one of the first major on-line Data Communication networks in the nation.

Larry married Rae Ann (Harrington) on January 28, 1961. Christine Ann was born on Labor Day, September 3, 1962 in Des Moines. Kathleen Ann was born on July 27, 1964 in Minneapolis, MN and David Allen was born in Santa Maria, California on December 5th, 1968. Dad said “I was roaming around a Japanese cemetery nearby, the fog was rolling in off of the ocean and could smell the Santa Maria style barbecue from a nearby restaurant. Didn’t get much better than that!! Chris and Kathy sure enjoyed their new brother.”

Larry loved his family more than anything! He loved to travel and always liked to be “on the road again” He took his family on vacations every summer to all 48 States, Mexico and Canada!

He’s visited all 50 States and most Canadian Provinces; numerous Amtrak train trips for his extensive Swedish genealogy research; trips to Iceland, Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy, England, Wales, Scotland, Austria, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Yucaton, Mexico, Jamaica.

In 1992, Larry became an Accredited Swedish Genealogist from the Genealogical Library of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has helped people all over the world with their family genealogical quest.

Larry started a long-distance running career when he was 40 years old! He ran over one hundred 10, 15, 20 kilometer races in Iowa, Minnesota, Utah, Hawaii and Florida. He ran three Marathon’s (26.2 miles), one in Iowa City, two at the Drake Relays in Des Moines. “What a wonderful grind!!” he said.

Larry bought a new Panisonic bicycle in 1985 and rode thousands of miles in various National Parks and quite a number of States. He rode RAGBRAI 5 times 1985-1990. He said “I really enjoyed my bicycle and took many pictures along the way” “I sure had a great time biking across the state and never realized how beautiful Iowa was”.

Larry will be missed greatly by his daughter Christine, son David, grandchildren Jasmine, Shaina, Samuel, Alex, Matthew and great-grandson Cody. He is reunited in Heaven with his daughter Kathleen, brother Bob, his parents and all friends and family who have gone before him.