FT. COLLINS, Colo | Darold W. "Pete" Petersen, 96, died Friday, Oct. 25, 2019.

Darold W. Petersen was born Dec. 1, 1922, about 10 miles north of St. Paul, NE. He was raised on a farm where he got experience using horses to do the hard work, tractors when they became available, and hand milking cows. His parents were Maud and Emery Petersen, and they were always good to him and worked very hard to make a living. His dad was forced to sell the farm due to hard times in the 1930s. They left the farm with all their possessions in a 1936 Ford to go to Fernandina, Fla where Emery worked for his brother George Petersen building large paper pulp tanks. Darold spent his 9th year in school there. The work soon dried up and the family moved to Portland Oregon to work for his brother. Eventually, they moved back to Nebraska and ended up buying a restaurant in Ord where Darold graduated from Ord High in 1940.

On Dec. 7, 1941, he got a call from his best buddy in Ord that his brother had gone down on the USS Arizona and he was going to enlist to go and help win the war. Darold also enlisted sometime later and trained to become a pilot in the Army Air Corps. After his training as a pilot at Texas A&M and other places, the Air Corps decided they had enough pilots to win the war, so he had to go back into Radar, and went to Madison, Wisconsin for training. That was close to Aberdeen, SD where Phyllis Goodspeed lived, a young woman Darold had met previously and fell in love with. He asked Phyllis to come to Madison to get married which she did. That was the happiest day of his life. She followed him to all the bases and found work to keep them afloat, and even drove a cab in Del Ray Beach, Fla. Darold was grateful for having shared his life with his wonderful wife of 60 years, and missed her very much after her passing at age 79 in Fort Collins, CO.

After the war, Darold went to work for Western Electric Co. installing Telephone Equipment. On March 29, 1949, while traveling to work in Estherville, Iowa he was in a terrible car accident and was in the death seat with no seat belts. Luckily, he only broke his pelvis and hip was thrown through the windshield with head injuries and ended up in a full-body cast. Since he couldn't work, he decided to go to Augustana College on crutches and graduated in 1952 with honors. The Telephone Company called him and asked him to come to work for them which he did and they moved to Rapid City in 1963. He got several promotions and ended up as the District Manager for Northwest Bell for the Western part of South Dakota which he loved and had some excellent people working for him and appreciated all the good work they did.

He did a lot of volunteer work in Rapid City for such organizations as South Canyon Lutheran Church, the YMCA, and Arrowhead Country Club. He grew up singing with the help of his mother, who was an organist in a Lutheran church in Nebraska. Darold sang in the church choir and in the Barber Shop Quartet.

Life was lonely after Phyllis passed but Darold found friendship in a coffee group where he lived. There he met Pauline Buck who was a real blessing and they had a lot of fun together.

Darold and Phyllis had two wonderful children: Ronald LeRoy Petersen (Kathy Campbell) and Rebecca Lynn Petersen (Terry Braden); Ron has four children: Chris, Tracy, Nicole, and Matthew; and nine grandchildren. Becky has three children: Rachael, Angie, and Ryan; and nine grandchildren. Darold was a devoted husband and family man who loved the Lord. He was a great example for all his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will miss him dearly.

Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1, at Osheim & Schmidt Funeral Home.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at South Canyon Lutheran Church with Pastor Chris Baesler officiating.

Interment will be at Pine Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery with full military honors rendered by the Rushmore VFW Post 1273 and the South Dakota Army National Guard.