Lyle Albert Peterson

Lyle Albert Peterson, 95 died at the home of Mark and Sandy Callan on September 11, 2022. He will be interred at Mount Hope Cemetery in Baker City, Oregon.

He was born on May 13, 1927, in Sandpoint, Idaho to Karl Albert and Mamie Emilie Foss Peterson. He was the third of 3 children. When he was 5 years old, he watched the construction on the Sandpoint long bridge and that was the inspiration that caused him to want to design and build bridges.

Lyle’s family moved to Baker, Oregon when he was 11. He played basketball and other sports and graduated from Baker High School. He was always a good student.

He married his sweetheart, Marjorie May in 1950 after receiving a civil engineering degree from Oregon State University.

His career allowed them to spend the first twelve years living in Oregon moving from one bridge project to the next including bridges listed below:

Bridge over Mill Creek in 1948

Bridge across Snake River at Payette

Bridges in Pendleton, John Day and LaGrande

Then he moved the family to Salem, Ore. where he worked on bridge design for the headquarters of the Highway Department of the State of Oregon, including helping design the bridge over the Columbia River at Astoria which was completed in 1966.

Lyle was fascinated by the challenge of designing and building something that would last and help people. Over the years the process of designing bridges became computerized into a cookie cutter recipe and he felt his creativity was stifled. He longed for challenge, creativity and adventure and sought it in the cutting-edge field of aeronautics.  In 1964 Lyle and Marjorie moved their family of five children to Ft. Worth, Texas, where Lyle began working at GENERAL Dynamics, an aircraft company, specializing on the F-111 Aardvark multi-purpose Fighter, and F16 Fighting Falcon.

While he worked at General Dynamics, he went to school at night to receive a Master’s Degree from Southern Methodist University in structural design.

Lyle always had a deep love and faith in his Heavenly Father and his Savior Jesus Christ being raised in the Lutheran and Methodist churches. He joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in 1971 and he was sealed to his wife and children in the Salt Lake City Temple in 1972.

Lyle and Marjorie had 2 more children before moving to Everett, Washington in 1980 to be near his mother and sister.

He began working for Boeing, continuing to work on aircrafts including 747, 757, and 767 passenger planes. Lyle lived in Everett for more than 40 years. But his love for Sandpoint never died and so he built a cabin with his sons on a hill near Sandpoint. He and Marge visited the cabin often for many years.

Lyle also had a great love for his Norwegian and Swedish heritage and in his later life he made great efforts to gather his cousins and make connections with his extended family. He had numerous phone calls and letters and arranged reunions and other events to bring his extended family together. He also valued his association with the Sons of Norway.

Lyle was a loving father, volunteer coach, math tutor, wood working craftsman, and leader in his church.

In 2007 Marjorie had a stroke and Lyle became her care giver for a number of years. When the health of both of them began to fail, Lyle and Marjorie moved in with his daughter, Christina and her husband, Jeff Stokes who cared for them. Also, their oldest daughter Linda Peterson returned to the USA from living in Japan to help and assist. In 2015 Lyle lost his beloved companion Marjorie of 64 years and continued to live with Chris and Jeff and Linda till 2021.

Lyle relocated to Farmington, Utah in 2021 at the age of 94 to live out his remaining years with daughter Sandy and her husband Mark Callan.

He was predeceased by both parents and his two sisters, Irene King Queen and Doris Baxter. He was also predeceased by his wife, Marjorie in 2015 and by his son, Bruce Albert Peterson in 2020.

Survivors include children Linda Peterson, Marsha (Roger) McCarty, Carol (Robert) Martin, Sandra (Mark) Callan, (Ann Peterson), Christina (Jeff) Stokes, and Erik (Lindsay) Peterson; 30 Grandchildren and 78 Great Grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.

The family would like to thank the staff of Canyon Hospice for their kind and loving care of Lyle for the last year. He loved you all.

For those wishing to attend virtually, the service will be streamed live at 11:00 AM on Russon Mortuary and Crematory Facebook Page using the following link: https://www.facebook.com/people/Russon-Mortuary-Crematory/100057447129518/