Philip Everett Peterson of Lewiston, an Idaho attorney and law professor, was born July 10, 1922, in Galena, Ill., to Everett Marvin and Marie Gleason Peterson. On Monday, Dec 29, 2003, at St. Joseph Regional Medical Center in Lewiston, Phil peacefully passed away from complications arising from pneumonia. He was devoted to his passion of law, family values and the teaching of others.
As a teacher and father Phil preached, "Be an over-achiever, a person who disciplines him or herself and in the process becomes able to do far more than appearances and tests would indicate." He also stressed learning to communicate, believing ideas were useless unless a person could give expression to them with his or her hand in the form of inventions, with words on paper or by other means. Phil emphasized having concern for one's fellow man, while exercising restraint in dealing with him. He also pushed thinking for oneself, whatever the case, and evaluating all facts available in the light of one's own knowledge and intelligence. Phil lived what he preached. His brother Gene says, "He served his Lord, his country, his community and always thought of himself last. To me, who he helped raise along with two other siblings, he was and still is the greatest."
Phil was the oldest of four children. When Phil was six his father was killed in an accident, leaving his mother to raise four children by herself. Phil became a father figure for his younger siblings, often taking his younger brother, Don, to school with him to care for him while his mother worked. Phil graduated from the Galena High School in 1940, afterward starting college only to enter the Army Air Forces service in November 1942 before finishing a degree.
During World War II, he served as a navigator with the Army Air Forces and, with his
B-29 crew, supplied personal transport to the Chinese Nationalist leader Chang Kai-Shek and was involved with the bombing of Japan. During the war he saw first-hand the horrors of the fire bombing of Japan. He often stated that this fire bombing was, in his opinion, more devastating than the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan. On one of his combat flights his B-29 was shot down, forcing the men aboard to ditch into the Pacific Ocean. As a result of his actions and injuries during his war term, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, Silver Star and Purple Heart. Following the war Phil was the navigator for a B-29 flight crew under the command of Gen. Twinning that made one of the first around-the-world trips. Phil stayed in the Air Force Reserves, achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel by the time of his retirement from the reserves in 1966.
Shortly after World War II ended, Phil met his wife of 50 years, Jeanne, who was then serving as a WAC, while they were both stationed in Japan. They were married in November 1947 and came back to the States. They were married three times, once for the Japanese government, once for the United States government and finally in the Catholic Church, leading to many family jokes. After returning to the States, Phil attended the University of Illinois and graduated from its law school in 1952 with a juris doctorate in law. Phil and Jeanne moved their growing family to Moscow in the same year he began his long career of teaching as a professor at the University of Idaho College of Law. He attended Harvard Law School as a Ford Fellow from 1957-58, receiving an additional degree while specializing in tax and estate planning law.
Phil subsequently served as dean of the University of Idaho College of Law from 1961 to 1966. In 1966 the family moved to Lewiston, where Phil went into private practice while continuing to teach at the College of Law part time.
When Phil was beginning his teaching career at the College of Law, he wrote a letter to the editor of the local paper arguing against a sales tax being proposed in the state Legislature. A local state representative read the letter in the paper and invited Phil to come to Boise to write a better sales tax bill. Phil accepted the offer, starting a lengthy relationship with the Idaho Legislature and governor's office resulting in Phil working at the direction of the Legislature or governor to write many of Idaho's sales tax and income tax laws that are still in use to this day. While teaching at the College of Law and practicing law, Phil was involved in five U.S. Supreme Court arguments. Phil also co-authored a Uniform Probate Code to standardize probate procedures between states. Idaho was the first state to adopt this model probate code, which, with Phil's involvement, was adopted by many other states.
Phil, due to his teaching position at the College of Law, made contact with many of Idaho's attorneys. He continued this relationship with his students by being involved with the Idaho State Bar and Idaho Law Foundation continuing legal education program. During his legal career, Phil always made himself available to any attorney or client who called and was also involved with many community support groups, even having served as a board member of the same hospital in which he died. He was a gracious, but stubborn, attorney who dealt fairly with all and advocated for his clients, many of whom became lifelong friends. Phil retired from the College of Law at the University of Idaho in 1990 and from the practice of law in 1998.
Phil was preceded in death by his wife, Jeanne; and his brothers, Marvin and Donald.
He is survived by his brother, Eugene of Sinton, Texas; and his six children: four daughters, Christine and husband Sam Hopwood of Kennewick, Barbara and husband Gary Robison of Santee, Calif., Claudia and husband Jay Rideout of Steilacoom, Wash., and Patricia and husband Ron Pardue of Lewiston and two sons, Eric and wife Marian Peterson of Lewiston, and Kurt and wife Sheila Peterson of Lynnwood, Wash. He had 13 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Phil was a devout Catholic and longtime member of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Lewiston.
The rosary will be recited at the vigil at 7 p.m. Friday at Vassar-Rawls Funeral Home in Lewiston. His funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in Lewiston, with burial to follow at Normal Hill Cemetery. A brunch will follow at St. Stanislaus Catholic Church Parish Center. All are invited.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made by mail to the University of Idaho College of Law in the name of the Philip and Jeanne Peterson Law Scholarship at the University of Idaho Trust and Investment Office, P.O. Box 443143, Moscow, ID 83844-3143.