March 27, 1930 — October 14, 2020
Denver native and retired Swedish Consul, Glenn Donald Peterson, was born March 27, 1930, to Swedish immigrant Enoch Peterson and Minnie Pearlina (Danielson) Peterson. He graduated from South High School and married Elinor in 1949. He worked in the printing business for 27 years. In 1960, he purchased what came to be known as Peterson Print, located at 1210 California Street in Denver, Colorado. His customers included Scripps-Howard and McGraw-Hill. He printed local newspapers including The Daily Journal (Denver’s legal newspaper), The Denver Democrat, The Colorado Republican, The Jewish News, The Italian, The Black Coloradoan, and The Swedish Western News (a publication for the Scandinavian community in the geographic region), and several local high school newspapers.
In 1977, the City of Denver purchased the downtown print shop site for expansion of the Denver Convention Center. The obsolete newspaper presses were too difficult to move and were thus buried under the Convention Center site. Following the sale of the printing business and the passing of his first wife, Elinor, he married Ursula and became an entrepreneur investing in real estate, obtaining his real estate license. However, he continued printing as a hobby with a print shop in his mountain home, even including a working linotype machine in the basement.
Glenn Peterson followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming an integral part of the Denver Swedish community. He opened the Swedish Consulate in Denver in 1970, having received an appointment from Swedish King Gustaf VI Adolf to serve the Rocky Mountain District of Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming as Vice-Consul. In 1973, the new Swedish monarch, King Karl XVI Gustaf, honored Peterson with a life-time appointment as Consul. Through his years as an active Consul, he received many awards; most notably, he was knighted by the King of Sweden with the Royal Order of the Polar Star medal as an Officer, later receiving promotions in the Order, culminating with the rank of Commander. In 1981, he was elected as Dean of the then 26-member Consular Corps of Colorado.
His involvement with the Swedish community led to him being one of the ten founding members of the Swedish Club of Denver. The Swedish Club promotes and celebrates Swedish culture and heritage. He was a member of numerous professional organizations, including Sigma Delta Chi, Denver Press Club (life-time member), Colorado Press Association, National Editorial Association, and the American Scandinavian Foundation. In addition, he served on the Board of the Swedish Medical Center and raised funds for the first and second expansions from its origin as the Swedish National Sanatorium.
He was a member of the Denver chapter of the Cadillac/LaSalle Club and enjoyed restoring 1959 Cadillacs. He even used his 1959 Fleetwood to take his daughter and her husband from the church after their wedding. In their later years, he and Ursula enjoyed traveling in their RV and also went on numerous international cruises.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Elinor (Johnson) Peterson and his second wife, Ursula (Marschhauser) Peterson. He is survived by his son, Donald Glenn Peterson of Denver, Colorado and his daughter Nancy (Peterson) Easterling (husband Rev. John Easterling) of Mountain Home, Arkansas, and four grandchildren.