SALT LAKE CITY — Former University of Utah President Chase Nebeker Peterson was remembered Monday as an unselfish man dedicated to his faith, his family and Utah.
"Not only was he smart, he had such a great heart. He cared so much for the university, about his students, and about Utah," his wife, Grethe Peterson, said. "He was just so happy here."
Peterson, a physician who gave his last lecture to medical school students in July, died Sunday of complications from pneumonia. He was 84.
Peterson's sometimes contentious eight years as University of Utah president ended in 1991. He returned to medicine, first seeing patients at the campus' Madsen Medical Center and then teaching as a member of the Family Medicine Department faculty.
Born in Logan, Peterson grew up on the Utah State University campus where his father, E.G. Peterson, served as president for 40 years. "He had a ball. He thought it was his playground," Grethe Peterson said.
At 14, Chase Peterson was awarded a scholarship to attend Middlesex School, a Massachusetts boarding school. He was the school's first Utahn and first Mormon student but never forgot his roots.
"I represented my family, my state and my church as well as myself," Peterson said in his memoir, "The Guardian Poplar," published two years ago by the University of Utah Press.
His wife said he was "thankful for his Mormon roots. That was who he was and he understood it. He felt it made him stronger to go out in the world and do what he had to do."
James Clayton, a former U. provost under Peterson, said his longtime friend stood out in academia for his committment to his faith, earning respect for having taken "a religious road in a highly secular institution and maintained his standards."
Peterson attended Harvard on scholarship, where he went to medical school and met his wife. After an internship at Yale University and serving as a doctor for the U.S. Army in Germany, Peterson returned to Utah and practiced as an endocrinologist.
In 1967, Peterson went back to Harvard as dean of admissions and actively recruited minority students including author and activist Cornel West, who wrote the forward to Peterson's memoir.
Peterson was also a Harvard vice president for alumni affairs and development and received the Harvard medal in 2006 for his service "during challenging years of campus protest and social change," according to the Harvard University Gazette.
A decade later, then-U. President David Gardner brought Peterson back to Utah as the university's vice president for health sciences, where he was a familiar figure during the world's first artificial heart transplant.
As the U.'s 11th president, Peterson was described by Gardner as instrumental in building the university's research capability, especially as it relates to genetics. He also instituted special office hours for students to meet with him.
But Peterson's tenure as president was also known for controversies surrounding his embrace of the U.'s now discredited cold fusion project as well as his attempt to name University Hospital for a donor.
Clayton said Peterson was trying to help the campus recover from hard-hitting budget cuts.
"He was extremely unselfish," Clayton said. "He risked his integrity and gained nothing from this personally in order to enhance the academic standing of this university."
Another longtime friend, former Deseret News Editor William B. Smart, said Peterson was disappointed at how his efforts were received but had the capacity "to put things behind him and move on to more fruitful endeavors."
Peterson is survived by his wife, three children, 14 grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Services will be held on Sept. 27, at 10 a.m. in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Monument Park North Stake.
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