Wayne Clark Peterson of Park City, Utah passed away on May 31, 2025 from a tired heart (CHF) at the ripe old age of 88.

I was born on October 16, 1936 in a little log cabin in Loa, Utah. The second son of William Wayne and Dorothy Bronson Peterson. The only heat in the cabin was from the kitchen stove, so they opened the oven door, put a blanket on it and laid me on the blanket to keep me warm. My brother “Neil” was born in Midway, but me and my sisters “Ruby” and “Luella” were all born in our little Loa Cabin.

My dad was working in Alaska as an electronics technician on a small military base on Attu island, which is at the far end of the Aleutian Chain when on December 7th 1941 Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Dad was a civilian and also a private pilot, so the military asked him to relocate to Ogden, Utah to manage the flight simulator program at Hill Field. Dad moved immediately and the rest of the family joined him in May of 1942.

We moved into a small house in Washington Terrace, a still under construction government worker housing complex. I graduated from South Jr. High, Weber High and Weber College. Right after high school I joined the Naval Reserves. In 1956 I was working as a draftsman in the Aeronautica Engineering Division at Hill Airforce Base, when Thiokol Chemical lured me away to work in their Rocket Engineering Division up in the Brigham City.

I graduated from the University of Utah in 1963 in mechanical engineering and spent the rest of my career running a small Consulting Engineering Firm in Salt Lake. While most of our work was located in Utah, we also did a lot of work in the surrounding states. This required that I become a licensed Professional Engineer in dozens of states. I was constantly traveling, so I also became a private pilot.

In 1957 I married Guyla Rosenberg from Cedar City, and we had four kids; Pete, Becky, Jim and Wendy. But me being a workaholic and constantly traveling put a lot of strain on our marriage, which was the primary cause of our divorce.

In 1982 I met Annette Pittard. Annette grew up in and escaped from Communist East Germany when she was 17 years old. She was Val Peterson’s secretary. Val was a good friend of mine. He was also the Director of Physical Plant at USU in Logan. We were married in 1984. Annette had two teenage daughters, Tauna and Phaedra from her previous marriage, and together we had “Josh” and “Tasha”. Between “His, Hers and Ours” we had 8 kids. Together we share many grandkids and great grandkids.

In our 40+ years of marriage we did everything together. Though we had a few minor disagreements not once did we say an unkind word to each other. Annette, I called her “Snooky”, is my forever sweetheart and soulmate.

I was preceded in death by my parents, my brother Neil, both sisters Ruby and Luella and my ex-wife Guyla. I was survived by “Snooky”, Sunny (our Westie) plus all of our kids and grandkids.

I had a great life!

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Human Society of Utah.

Join us as we celebrate the life of Wayne Clark Peterson. Cowboy boots and hats encouraged -- just as Clark would've wanted. Please bring a written memory to leave as a keepsake for his beloved wife, Annette. Saturday, June 7, 2025 at 5:00 pm at 2521 Brentwood Dr, Holladay, UT 84121.