James Morton “Jim” Peterson, 92, died Tuesday, June 26, 2018 at his home in Vermillion, SD.
Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Monday, July 2 at Salem Lutheran Church in Ponca, NE. Burial will be in the Ponca Cemetery. Visitation with the family present will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. with a prayer service at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday, July 1 at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Mohr Funeral Home in Ponca.
Jim was born Nov. 21, 1925 in Sioux City, IA, to Oscar and Helen (Welsh) Peterson. He grew up in Ponca, NE, where he attended Ponca Public Schools, graduating from high school in 1943. Upon graduation he was awarded a Regent’s Scholarship to the University of Nebraska. He also received the Danforth Award for scholarship.
Jim volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army Air Corps on June 28, 1943. He served on the flight line in a B-17 bombardment squadron and later in a B-29 bombardment squadron. He was honorably discharged on Feb. 23, 1946. He joined the U.S. Army Air Force Reserve in 1946 and served until 1952.
Jim attended the University of South Dakota following his discharge from the U.S. Army Air Force in 1946 and graduated from the USD School of Law in 1951. He worked for the United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company until 1959 when he joined the faculty of the USD School of Business. As professor of business law, he taught at USD from 1959 to 1991, teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.
As a member of the USD School of Business staff, he served on a variety of school and university committees and was four times elected chairman of the University Senate. He served as chairman of the School of Business Tenure and Promotion Committee, as chairman of the University Committee on Honorary Degrees and as chairman of the university “Core Curriculum” (General Education Requirements) Committee. He was selected as “Teacher of the Year” by the USD Student Body Association in 1977.
On June 27, 1952, he married Jeanne E. Wallace in Sioux City, IA. Two children were born to this union, Kim Elizabeth and James Scott. Kim died Oct. 5, 1958. Jim’s wife, Jeanne, died Dec. 28, 1990.
Jim had a life-long interest in the Missouri River. With his family, he navigated the Missouri from the headwaters at Three Forks, MT, to the river’s mouth near St. Louis, MO. He authored numerous articles about boating on the Mighty Mo, which were published in a variety of national magazines. He was also the subject of and was often sought out as a source for many newspaper and magazine stories about the river.
He was long the holder of a U.S. Coast Guard Motorboat Operator’s license. He was a past president of the Missouri River Bank Stabilization Association, a member of the Missouri National Recreational River Advisory Board, past president of the Board of Directors of the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary, the Missouri River Society and the Spirit Mound Trust.
He was also a member of Salem Lutheran Church, Ponca, NE, Omadi Lodge #5 A.F. & A.M., the Nebraska Bar Association, the State Bar of South Dakota, and the Clay County Park Board.
In 1996, Jim was instrumental in helping Ken Burns shoot scenes along the 59-mile stretch of the Missouri River from Ponca to Gavins Point Dam for the director’s documentary on Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery. His association with Burns on the PBS documentary got him an invitation to the White House where he met then president Bill Clinton. Jim presented programs about the river and Lewis and Clark to innumerable groups and organizations and countless individuals have memories of the boat trips they took with Jim at the helm, as the self-proclaimed “river rat” navigated the swirls, riffles and boils of the Mighty Mo. Throughout the years Jim took thousands of photographs of the ever-changing river and spent many hours at his beloved Black Acre property on the river west of Vermillion.
Jim was preceded in death by his mother and father; step-father Roy Bivens; daughter and wife; brother, John; and sisters Joan, Barb and Elizabeth.
He is survived by his son, James “Pete” Peterson and his wife, Jill of Yankton; many, many relatives both near and far; and special friends from every walk of life.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Lewis and Clark Trail Heritage Foundation or the Ponca Community Educational Foundation.
Jim at his beloved “River Place”