Final Salute

William J. Peterson
June 3, 1923 – June 6, 2022
Bellingham, Washington – Dr. Bill Peterson, a long-time dentist in Bellingham, passed away peacefully in Wenatchee just three days after celebrating his 99th birthday together with family. Bill was born in Seattle to Aage Christian Petersen who emigrated to the United States from Denmark when he was 16 years old, becoming a tailor, and his wife Alice Huskinson from Idaho, who worked as a seamstress. Bill and his older brother Don, who pre-deceased him in 2013, grew up in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Bill met his wife Bette while attending Roosevelt High School in Seattle, and then served about two years as a Navy Seabee on Mbanika Island in the Solomon Islands in World War 2. Upon returning from the war, Bill and Bette married and had their first son Rick while Bill attended the University of Washington, graduating from the School of Dentistry in 1953. The young family then moved to Bellingham where Dr. Peterson opened his dental practice. His second son Greg soon followed, and Bill continued to practice dentistry until he retired in 1988. Bill was an avid golfer and enjoyed many good friendships well into his eighties as a long-time member of the Bellingham Golf and Country Club. He loved fishing, bird hunting (especially pheasant hunting in Eastern Washington), Mariners baseball and the Seattle Seahawks (Bill and Bette were season ticket holders from day one). He was also a voracious life-long reader enjoying intricate mysteries and swashbuckling adventure novels. He and Bette treasured many winter vacations with Bellingham friends in Hawaii and Mexico, plus a few trips to Europe and a “trip-of-a-lifetime” through Southeast Asia in 1974. After Bette passed away suddenly in 1993, Bill continued to live in Bellingham on Lake Whatcom. When he turned ninety, he moved to Madison Park in Seattle, close to his son Rick, where he spent the last years of his life reconnecting with the neighborhoods he knew well as a young boy, until he moved one final time to Wenatchee just six days before passing. He is survived by his son Rick and partner Thomas in Seattle, son Greg and wife Leslie in Wenatchee, grandson Matt Maher Peterson and wife Darcey, granddaughter Ashley Walker and husband Chad, and great grandchildren Luna, Sabel, Wesley and Angus, all of Bellingham. More than anything, Bill loved his family, and his family loved him.

Published by & from Jun. 26 to Jul. 2, 2022.