SCOTT HOVEY PETERSON

Born: April 16, 1940
Died: August 31, 1985

Scott was born in Jersey City, son of Gertrude Edna Hovey Peterson and Edward Scott Peterson. He entered Yale from Leonia, New Jersey High School.

Scott was a non-resident member of Saybrook where he competed on the college football and crew squads. He was also an active member of Phi Gamma Delta and Alpha Phi Omega. He earned his numerals on the freshman crew. Freshman year he roomed with Charles Knight and Sandy Dolowitz in Wright Hall.

Having majored in economics as an undergraduate, Scott spent the bulk of his career in investments and banking. He was first employed by Chemical Bank New York Trust Company in New York City in 1963 and rose through the ranks to become a trust officer. At the time of his death he was a Vice President of trusts and investments for Chemical Bank with an office at Rockefeller Center in New York City.

Scott obtained a Masters Degree in 1973 from Columbia University School of Business. He had also attended New York University.

Scott's first marriage to the former Susan Swan in 1960 ended in divorce in 1968. They had two children, Scott H., Jr. born in 1961 and Penny born in 1966. Scott then married the former Adele Kenyon in 1968. This marriage terminated. On June 25, 1978, he married Margaret Godin. Their daughter Dana Nicole Peterson was born on November 2, 1985, 2 months after Scott's death.

Scott and Margaret resided in Port Jefferson, Long Island with a city apartment on Bleecker Street in the Village. Scott was an avid sailor and Margaret often crewed for him in races. "This," she recalled, " was the only time I took orders from him!"

Scott died of a sudden heart attack at Penn Station on August 31, 1985. Margaret then relocated permanently to New York City where Dana was born. Margaret was an Assistant Vice President at Chemical Bank and continued to work while raising Dana as a single parent. She retired from banking in 2000. She never remarried and continues to reside in New York City.

Dana is a graduate of Wheaton College and is now studying at Columbia Teachers College preparatory to a career in speech and language pathology. Scott, Jr., resides in Lafayette, New Jersey with his wife Ceci Rockis Peterson and their daughters, Kendall, Stephanie, and Trisha. Scott, Jr., is the Facilities Supervisor at the Morristown (NJ) Municipal Airport. Penny lives in Tampa, Florida where she and her husband Terry Welsch operate a manufacturing company. They have two daughters, Taryn and Brittany.

In addition to his banking interests, Scott was active in the Fowler Association of the Yale Chapter of Phi Gamma Delta and served as Vice President. He was also active in government in Bergen County, New Jersey, serving as a Borough Councilman and on the Republican Committee as well as with the Waldwick Jaycees and the Waldwick Planning Board. He was a Director of the Forum School in Ridgewood, New Jersey, an institution for seriously disturbed children. After Scott's death, the Scripps Howard Publishing Company, one of his charitable trust clients, created a journalism scholarship in his honor.

The obituary essay for Scott was originally written in 1985 on the occasion of the Class of 1962's 25th Reunion. At that time Yale did not have Mrs. Peterson's address and the information available did not state that Margaret was expecting at the time of Scott's death or that Dana had subsequently been born. In May 2012, when Mrs. Peterson and Dana were reminiscing about Scott, a father Dana never knew, Dana searched for his name on the internet and chanced upon the original obituary essay on our class website. This impelled Mrs. Peterson to contact me. This replacement obituary is based upon conversations with Margaret Peterson and is presented to correct the original unfortunate omission of Scott's daughter Dana. Your scribe's apologies and those of the class are extended to Margaret, Dana, Scott, Jr., and Penny. Margaret's address has now been provided to Alumni Records so that she will receive our class communications for the first time after 27 years.