Jon Douglas Peterson
(March 5, 1947-May 16, 2020)
Jon Douglas Peterson died, surrounded by family, at home in Albany, CA, on May 16, 2020. Born in Kansas City, Kansas on March 5, 1947, Dr. Peterson was a scholar-athlete-artist-writer-physician. He earned a B.A. and M.D. from the University of Kansas, and later an M.F.A. in Creative Writing from SF State University.
Jon was a varsity athlete in basketball, football, and track in his sophomore year in high school when a life-altering surgery ended his high school athletic career. Years of recovery gave him ample time for introspection. Always sensitive to suffering and injustice, Jon worked with his church youth group in Kansas City’s center city helping people in need. Before medical school, Jon volunteered at clinics in Mexico and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Always curious about the human psyche throughout diverse cultures, Jon and his nephew traveled with backpacks east to west around the world, making memories for a lifetime. A few years later, they went on a backpacking trip in Peru, the inspiration for Jon’s novel Searching the Andes for Albert Schweitzer.
Throughout his life Jon continued to be active in social justice causes, traveling twice to Palestine to meet with human rights activists and hear the stories of Palestinian people from their own lips. He wrote a screenplay based on these experiences.
After completing medical school, he moved to San Francisco to begin his psychiatry residency, and stayed in California to set up his practice in the East Bay. A psychiatrist for over 40 years, he listened empathically more than dispensed pharmaceuticals as he worked for his patients’ healing and wellbeing.
Jon had a deep fount of creativity. As a young child, he spent long hours playing alone, transforming small plastic soldiers into athletes by taping appendages into strategic motions and engaging them in elaborate stories. Throughout his life, he created sculptures and paintings; he designed staircases and decks; he wrote songs and played the guitar; and he wrote novels and screenplays. For several years, he taught the Great Books seminars at St. Mary’s College (Moraga, CA), savoring his time talking about the big questions in life.
As a single man, Jon adopted two children. He was the coach of his kids’ soccer teams for many years as well as an avid follower of their basketball teams. After 9 years of single parenting, in 2005 he married Hertha Sweet Wong, mother of two adopted daughters, and moved to Albany, CA where they blended their two families.
Jon lived with Parkinson’s disease for 17 years. His legacy lives on in his family, resilient patients, writing, art, social justice activism, and friends.
Jon is survived by his wife, Hertha Sweet Wong; his children, Philip and Crystal Peterson; his step-daughters, Sita and Xian Wong; his grandson, Ayden Peterson; his 100-year-old mother, Jean Dooley Peterson; sister, Ann Hyde; and nephews, David Hyde and his wife and children: Ingrid, Kristina and Tyler, and Peter Hyde and son Trey.
If you wish to honor Jon’s memory, please donate to the Parkinson’s Foundation (www.parkinson.org). A celebration of Jon’s life will be held after the pandemic has passed.
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