James Andrew Peterson

Hi Obituary Readers,

So here I am writing my own obituary, well sort of, I’ll get to that later.

My name is James A. Peterson, most people called me Jim or Pete. Born in Willows, California on 1/26/1939 I only remained there for a short time, a couple of months maybe, before moving to Yuba City, CA along with my father Howard Sr. (1909 – 1980), mother Iris (1915 - 2004), two older sisters, Caroline (1934 – 2000) and Billie (1936 -). Our father was employed with PT&T, Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, and at that time the U.S. government considered communication workers critical to national security so he, fortunately, was not drafted due to WWII. While living in Yuba City our brother, Howard (1945 -) joined the family. In 1949 dad was transferred again, this time to Redding, CA while I was in the fourth grade. I attended school in Redding until I graduated (just barely, too much time hunting and fishing and other foolishness) from Shasta Union High School. Not long after high school, I joined the US Navy on Jan. 30, 1958.

The first year and a half were spent in Boot Camp, a short temporary duty station and finally Aviation Electronics training before being assigned to HS-6, an Anti-Submarine Helicopter Squadron, stationed at Ream Field Naval Air Station, just south of San Diego, CA. Our squadron made two Far East cruises on the aircraft carrier USS Kearsarge, visiting Hawaii, Japan, Okinawa, Philippine Islands, Hong Kong and a few other Far East locations. At that time, after four years of active-duty time one still had four years of reserve duty to serve.

For the next few years, I worked in construction in various locations in California, Oregon and Washington first as a laborer and then as an Operating Engineer operating heavy equipment. After a few years of moving around with the construction trade and then meeting my future beautiful and wonderful wife, Ana Maria Essenpreis, I enrolled in Shasta Community Junior College in Redding CA. Ana and I were married June 15, 1968, in Redding CA. We moved to San Louis Obispo, CA where I attended California State Polytechnic University. With Ana, a registered nurse, working at a local hospital, and me working part time at a local liquor store and the GI Bill we survived college life pretty well.

While in SLO we had our first beautiful baby, a girl, Stacy (Bustamante) in June of 1972; shortly after that I received my Bachelor of Science Degree. Then it was off to Fremont, CA where I took a job with Peterbilt Motors Co. as an outside Field Service Representative until mid-1975. It was during that time, Oct. 1973, that we had our second wonderful child, a boy, Keith. After my tenure with Peterbilt Motors Co. we moved to Pendleton, OR where I worked for the Pendleton branch of Diesel Service Unit, a Peterbilt dealership until 1980. Ana had returned to her nursing career after we moved to Pendleton.

During my time at DSU a good friend of mine, Jim Wallace, who also worked there encouraged me to join the Oregon Army National Guard. So, in Dec. 1977 I enlisted and was with Trp I (-) 3rd/116th ACR in Pendleton until Dec. 1986 when I transferred to the Army Reserve, 6229th UARF located in Vancouver WA until June 1997 and finally retiring from the military in Jan. 1999 after 25 ½ years of service. Between 1980 until about 1985 I worked as a New York Life Insurance agent, and we exercised a lease option on the Tri-J Drive-In Restaurant in Pendleton for a year and a half. In 1985 I went to work for Woodpecker Truck & Equipment from which I retired as their Warranty Manager on Dec. 31, 2006, following Ana’s retirement from Eastern Oregon Psychiatric Center later known as Blue Mountain Recovery Center on Dec. 15, 2006.

During our years of living in Eastern Oregon we continued to enjoy hunting, fishing, camping and other activities. Since our retirement, which has been wonderful by the way, we have enjoyed lots of quality time with our children Stacy and her husband Jeff, Keith and his wife, Leah and our grandchildren Jordan, Raeana, Derek and Isabelle in addition to other relatives and friends.

Now back to my statement at the beginning “I’ll get to that later”, since I am not the best author to come down the pike, I recruited some help from Keith with this narrative; that is after he got over the initial shock of helping me with my own obituary.

Jim Peterson

Written 11/7/13