Don Seely Petersen

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Don Seely Petersen was born in Molen, Utah in 1926 but moved to Ferron in 1960. He is the oldest of three children born to Seely John Petersen and Ruby Maria Leslie. He attended grade school in Ferron and graduated from South Emery High School in 1944 where he was the editor of the school newspaper. He played tennis, table tennis, was a high jumper on the track team and played the French Horn in the band. After graduation he attended Carbon College for one year and then joined the Army Air Corps.
Don was a baseball player on a Ferron team that belonged to the Coal League and has also been a Little League and Pony League coach. He refereed high school basketball games all over the state. He served on the Ferron City Council for eight years including the years the Millsite Golf Course was built.
He worked with his grandfather, father and brother as a farmer during the first 15 years of his married life. Later he also worked for the Ferron Canal & Reservoir Company in the summer and in a coal mine during the winter. He began working for the Forest Service in 1963 operating heavy machinery and eventually became the Manti LaSal road supervisor in 1979. Don worked for the Forest Service for 27 years. One project was digging trenches and furrows on steep slopes to slow erosion. Then he worked on the road crew, building and maintaining roads on the Manti LaSal National Forest.
Don spent his boyhood days in Molen on the farm milking cows. Irrigating, cutting and hauling hay, raising stock show calves, swimming in the irrigation ditches, skiing, ice skating and sleigh riding in winter. His youth was spent in the Sinbad area of the San Rafael Swell branding, dehorning and driving cows between the Sinbad grazing area in the summer and the corrals of Molen in the winter.
After high school Don attended college in Price before he was called up for the Army Air Corps. During his time in the military, he would come back to Utah on furlough to court Laverna Duncan. During one furlough they decided to get married. They were married in a ceremony in Clawson on July 12, 1946 and had a one-week honeymoon at Willow Lake camping in a tent.
Golf and gardening, woodworking and service became Don’s activities after retirement. He played golf at least weekly until a couple of years ago. His vegetable garden was always productive . . . unless the deer beat him to the fruit and vegetables.
In 2003, Don and Laverna were honored by being selected as the Grand Marshalls of the Peach Day parade in Ferron. They served a mission to the Manti Temple in the baptistery from 1990 – 1992.
Don has been a farmer, rancher, cowboy, mechanic, heavy equipment operator and a coal miner. But he is also a husband, father and respected member of the community. He has served his church, his country and various community and service organizations.
He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Laverna and four children: John Petersen (Christine) of Springville, Gayle (Alan) Davido of Helper, Ray (Nancy) Petersen of Ferron and Kaye (Wayne) Anderson of Colorado Springs, CO, 11 grandchildren, 19 great-grandchildren and two great, great-grandchildren.
Funeral services were held Thursday, Sept. 8, 2016 at Ferron Blue Hills Ward at 11 a.m. with a viewing one hour prior. Interment, Ferron City Cemetery entrusted to Fausett Mortuary of Emery County. Family and friends may sign the guest book and share memories of Don at www.fausettmortuary.com.