Larry Allen Peterson

Larry Allen Peterson: Husband, Father, and Business Management Consultant

Larry Allen Peterson of Patagonia, Arizona died on February 10, 2019 after a brief illness. He was 75.

Larry moved to the Patagonia-Sonoita area in 1993 with his wife Chris and their three children. A transplant from the North, it was soon as if he had been born of the region’s grasslands and red rocks. It was here he cultivated his passion for archeology and absorbed the region’s beauty during countless hours walking the land, often side-by-side with Chris.

Larry was born April 30, 1943 in Fargo, North Dakota to Harold Anthony and Edna (Zieman) Peterson. He graduated from high school in Watertown, Wisconsin and received a degree in mathematics, physics, and philosophy from Wartburg College in Iowa.

When asked what he did for a living, Larry often replied he traveled selling brooms. In fact, he was an accomplished business management consultant and entrepreneur. Larry founded his own consulting business before he was 30 and never looked back. He was coding business systems back when it was called writing software, the computers took up rooms, and the “thumb drives” were large disks of magnetic tape. The traveling part was true, however. He had clients all over the United States, Mexico, and England.

Larry’s business philosophy never lost sight that the point of business is to make money, yet he combined the art of the business plan with the values that make for a fulfilling life. He distilled his decades of experience in a volume titled “Rules for Money and Fun” and applied them in various businesses, including designing fletching—only better—for bow hunting and raising cattle on his beloved Redrock Ranch.

Larry met Christin J. Debbink in Haiti. They both participated in volunteer service trips, sponsored by the Ventures in People Foundation in the 1980s. For over 35 years, her zest for life and capacity for kindness continued to melt his heart.

A father of seven, he was known to call his children at random intervals just to say “I love you,” and he recognized and enjoyed the unique persons that each of them are. He had had four children with Joanne (Schmidt) Peterson of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin before their marriage ended in divorce.

Grandchildren added even more joy to his life. He loved playing piano and bongos with them and challenging them to math problems. He could always be counted on to meet them at the front door.

Although he eventually gave up his frequent flyer status, he still took pleasure in watching the planes come in and out of Nogales International Airport and found the time to write volumes of his own brand of cowboy poetry.

Most recently, he spent his time in the little house on Harshaw Creek, where he took delight in watching humming birds dive-bomb each other, the hopping about of a little wren, and watering his flowers. He continued to quench his thirst for knowledge and write, almost daily, about what he saw in the world.

In addition to Chris, Larry is survived by four daughters, Sarah Jo, Ingrid (Travis) Bruce, Christina (Jacob) Chattman, and Birgitta (Fabian) Garcia; three sons Pehr (Melissa), Leif (Kate), and Thor (Sabina); nine grandchildren; and two brothers and two sisters.