Arthur Peterson

MADISON- Arthur Edwin Peterson, age 91, died on January 26, 2015. He was born on the family farm near Curtiss, Wisconsin on March 11, 1923, the son of Anna (Thompson) and Edwin Peterson. He attended a one-room school and graduated from Owen High School. He began college at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with the aid of a Sears Roebuck Agriculture Foundation Scholarship. He married Eva Ann Mundth on February 13, 1944 in Reedsburg, Wisconsin.
WW II interrupted his schooling when he enrolled in the U.S. Army Air Corp Meteorology program. He spent a year at Carleton College, Northfield, MN. The program closed and he transferred to the Army Signal Corp. He served 18 months in Europe with the 3124th Signal Port Service Co. and survived the Battle of the Bulge.
Art returned to UW-Madison and received three degrees from the College of Agriculture. He joined the faculty of the Soil Science Department in 1950; he did agricultural extension work throughout the state and taught and researched in soil and water conservation. His early work in planting corn without plowing (no till) is now widely accepted. In 1960 he developed a unique statewide frost depth-reporting network in cooperation with cemetery officials, funeral directors and the State Crop Reporting Service to provide frost depths from November to April. This network still continues. Land application of bio-solids occupied most of his work in later years. For 30 years his Soil and Water Conservation course had a 120-mile aerial field trip to study the erosion and drainage problems associated with the glaciated and unglaciated areas of Wisconsin. He retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1994.
Art received the J.S. Donald Excellence in Teaching Award, Water Environment Federation Industrial Waste Control Award, and the U.S. EPA Beneficial Biosolids Use Award. He was a Fellow in the American Association for Advancement of Science, the Soil and Water Conservation Society of America and the American Society of Agronomy. He held memberships in the Soil Science Society of America, the International Soil Science Society, the American Society of Agronomy, the Soil Conservation Society of America, the American Society of Agricultural Engineers, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the International Soil Tillage Organization, the Wisconsin Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, the Wisconsin Farm City Council, Nature Conservatory Society, and the UW Agriculture and Life Science Alumni Association.
Art also had considerable overseas experience. In 1965 he took a leave from UW-Madison and joined the Rockefeller Foundation as Chief Resident Consultant to the Egyptian Minister of Agriculture. With his wife, Eva and their three sons -- Don, Bob and Bill -- they lived in Maadi, Egypt (just outside Cairo for nearly two years). When the Six Day War cut the stay short, they lived for three months in Bangkok, Thailand, working with the Rockefeller Foundation Corn Project en route back to Wisconsin. Art returned five more times to Egypt on agricultural projects and also worked in Syria, Armenia, and Indonesia on research and educational issues.
Art was also active in many local organizations. He was a charter member of West Madison Kiwanis and served as Wisconsin-Upper Michigan Kiwanis District Governor from 1973-74. He was president of the West Madison Little League and located their present site. He served as Little League District 4 Administrator for 15 years. In 1996 he was named Mr. Olympian of the Year by the Madison Service Club Council. He was active at Bethel Lutheran Church, serving on the Church Council, teaching high school Sunday school for 10 years and the Bethel Series for five years, president of the Media Board, Bethel Couples Club, Men's Book Study and Sound and Light Coordinator. Art served for seven years on the Lutheran Campus Directing Committee. Art was a long time member and officer of the Madison-Oslo Sister City committee and hosted guests from Olso and, with Eva, visited Norway several times. He was also a member of the Wisconsin Farm City Council, Bascom Hill Society, Ygdrasil, People-to-People, Epsilon Sigma Phi, Sigma Xi, Gamma Sigma Delta and Veterans of Foreign Wars.
Art enjoyed sports and for decades had season tickets to UW football, basketball and hocky games. He was a 40-year member of the UW faculty bowling league, and also enjoyed golf and stamp collecting. He loved to play ping-pong. Art was a good photographer and took hundreds of slides on his many trips and used them in his courses and in dozens of talks around the state.
Art's "Shangri-La," one of favorite places to spend time, was his family's 50 acres on the north fork of the Flambeau River, in middle of the Flambeau State Forest.
Art was an energetic person who lived his life to his fullest. His warmth and compassion for others was an inspiration to all. He was deeply devoted to his family, grandchildren and great grandchildren, who were a delight to him.
He is survived by his three sons, Donald (Linda) of Eden Prairie, MN; Robert (Barbara) of Milwaukee; and William (Lois) of Middleton, in addition to six grandchildren -- Jennifer, Jason, Caitlin, Mahalia, Anne and Heidi-- and five great-grandchildren, Dominic, Avery, Zaphaniah, Zechariah, and Addison. He was preceded in death by Eva, his beloved wife of 66 years, his parents and his brother and sister-in-law, Ralph and Gwen.
Funeral services will be held at BETHEL LUTHERAN CHURCH, 312 Wisconsin Avenue, Madison on Saturday, January 31, 2015 at 11:00 a.m. Visitation will be held at the church on Saturday, from 9:00 a.m. until the time of service.
Donations may be made in Art's name to West Madison Little League or TV Media Ministry of Bethel Lutheran Church.



Cress Funeral Service
3610 Speedway Road, Madison
(608)238-3434