PORT ANGELES — Dr. Norman F. Peterson, the founder of Peninsula Behavioral Health, has died.
He was 75.
Peterson, a Port Angeles resident, died March 1 at Swedish Medial Center in Seattle after a brief battle with cancer.
“It was very sudden,” said his son, Joe Peterson of Port Angeles, who survives his father along with his brother, Daniel, also of Port Angeles.
Norman Peterson’s death was announced recently by Peninsula Behavioral Health. Joe Peterson said no memorial is planned as of now.
His father, a psychiatrist, established Peninsula Behavioral Health in 1971 with seven staff members and $100,000, according to Rebekah Miller of the agency’s development department.
Since then, the agency has grown into one of Clallam County’s major employers, with a $6.5 million budget and a staff of more than 100 serving some 4,000 clients in offices in Port Angeles and Sequim, she said.
“He really saw a need for mental health care out in the [North Olympic] Peninsula, and there was no game in town,” Miller said.
“This was his brain child.”
‘Outstanding legacy’
“His legacy is outstanding, to have grown it from seven staff members into the largest nonprofit in Clallam County,” Miller said.
In 1978, he stepped down as director but continued to serve clients as a physician consultant until 2005.
He stayed in private practice until his retirement in 2013.
“His practice was a community service,” Joe Peterson said.
“As a psychiatrist in Port Angeles, you can imagine most of his patients didn’t have insurance or much money. He was very generous and understanding.”
As his patients faced challenges, “he’d always keep trying to help them even if they kept running into the same difficulties over and over again,” said his son.
“He would stay as their ally. My dad never gave up on anybody.”
Norman Peterson died one month after the death of his wife of 50 years, Virginia, said their son.
A cancer, undetected until recently, grew quickly, he said.
“When my mom passed away, I think his immune system just gave out,” Joe Peterson said.
The couple, who had moved the family to Port Angeles from Seattle in 1970, enjoyed backpacking in the Olympic Mountains.
They also were avid gardeners, and Norman Peterson was an amateur photographer who entered photos in the Clallam County Fair each year.
Washington degrees
Peterson earned his medical degree from the University of Washington after graduating with a bachelor’s in chemistry from Central Washington University in Ellensburg.
He was on the medical staff of Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles until he retired and served as regional medical consultant to Region VI of the state’s Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and Psychiatric Consultative Examiner for the state’s Office of Disability Insurance.
He was a fellow and diplomate of the American Board of Medical Psychotherapists and a fellow of the American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians.
He held memberships in the Clallam County Medical Society, Washington State Medical Association, American Medical Association, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, American Academy of Disability Evaluating Physicians and American Board of Medical Psychotherapists.
His remains were cremated, said Joe Peterson. He and his brother are his father’s only survivors, he said. No funeral was held.
