Chas Peterson, as photographed December 22, 1952. —
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In Memoriam Charles “Chas” Peterson, 1927–2017
Utah lost one of its finest historians on May 10, 2017, when Charles S. “Chas” Peterson passed away in St. George at the age of ninety. Chas was an effective advocate for state and local history whose enthusiasm for Utah’s history was boundless and infectious. His papers housed at the Utah State Historical Society contain a treasure trove of documents and insights, assembled over a lifetime of research and teaching Utah, western, and Mormon history. Chas was a fellow of the Utah State Historical Society, a former director of the society,
As a boy, Chas believed that Snowflake was the center of the universe, an illusion that was shattered after Uncle Sam drafted him in 1945 and shipped him overseas. Chas entered the military only weeks before Germany surrendered and was stationed in Japan as part of the American occupation force after the war ended. Shortly after he returned home from Asia Chas honored his mother’s wishes and answered the call to serve an LDS mission in Sweden, his ancestral homeland. Taking advantage of the GI Bill following his mission, Chas enrolled at Brigham Young University, where he earned a degree in animal husbandry. Then he and his bride Elizabeth “Betty” Hayes moved to San Juan County, where they leased a dairy farm from Charlie Redd beginning in 1953. Dairy farmers struggled in the Eisenhower era as scientific advances enabled farmers to produce more milk than Americans could consume and as Secretary of Agriculture Ezra Taft Benson
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Chas was born in 1927 in Snowflake, Arizona, a town not far removed at the time from its pioneer era, and grew up as the tenth of thirteen children in the blended family of Joseph Peterson and Lydia Jane Savage. Along with many of his generation he transitioned from the farm to academia, but, unlike most, his career entailed both agricultural and academic pursuits. As a young man, Chas relished life on the family farm—raising crops, milking cows, and butchering hogs—and his love affair with the yeoman tradition helped to shape his professional trajectory, including his research and writing about agricultural history.
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and editor of the Utah Historical Quarterly and the Western Historical Quarterly. He served as president of the Mormon History Association in 1975–1976. As a history teacher and professor at Carbon College, the University of Utah, Utah State University and, following his retirement, at Southern Utah University, Chas mentored numerous students and professionals, myself included.
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