Early Life and Family
Peterson was born in Portage, Wisconsin, the son of Anton and Emma Peterson. The eighth of nine children, his father Anton was an immigrant from Sweden who worked as a bartender and barber. Peterson attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison where he received a B.S. in 1938, working as a dishwasher in the chemistry lab to pay the bills and a Ph.D. in Chemistry in 1942. In 1937 he married Lillian Turner, with whom he had four children: R. Glen, Peter J., Kristin P. Havill and Elin P. Sullivan. Lillian died in 1994. He married his second wife, June Jenkins, who had been recently widowed, in 1995. He was a member of the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Read more about this topic: Russell W. Peterson
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