Born: November 1, 1921, Lindsborg, Kansas.

Died: September 20, 2006.

Of Swed­ish lin­eage, Pe­ter­son lost his fa­ther at age four, and came to Christ age 12. He dis­played a mu­sic­al gift ear­ly, writ­ing his first song while a sen­ior in high school. In World II, he served in the Ar­my Air Corps, fly­ing the Him­a­lay­an sup­ply route to Chi­na. Af­ter the war, he at­tend­ed Moody Bi­ble In­sti­tute and the Amer­i­can Con­ser­va­to­ry of Mu­sic in Chicago, Illinois (grad­u­at­ed 1953). In 1954, he went to work for the Sing­spir­a­tion Mu­sic Com­pa­ny in Mont­rose, Penn­syl­van­ia; when Zon­der­van Pub­lish­ing House bought Sing­spir­a­tion in 1963, Pe­ter­son moved to Grand Ra­pids, Mi­chi­gan, where he served as pre­si­dent and ed­it­or-in-chief for over a de­cade. Lat­er in life, Pe­ter­son served on the board of Gos­pel Films, Inc., Mus­ke­gon, Mi­chi­gan; and, af­ter mov­ing to Scotts­dale, Ar­i­zo­na, co-found­ed Good Life Pro­duc­tions and served on the board of Fam­i­ly Life Ra­dio Net­work in Tuc­son, Ar­i­zo­na. He was ad­mit­ted to the Gos­pel Mu­sic Hall of Fame in 1986.

Sources

Hymns

  1. Come, Holy Spirit
  2. It Took a Miracle
  3. It’s Not an Easy Road
  4. Over the Sunset Mountains
  5. Heaven Came Down
  6. Isn’t the Love of Jesus Something Wonderful (© 1961)
  7. Jesus Is Coming Again
  8. Jesus Led Me All the Way
  9. No One Understands Like Jesus
  10. Shepherd of Love
  11. Springs of Living Water
  12. Jesus Is Coming Again
  13. Surely Goodness and Mercy (© 1958)
  14. There’s a New Song in My Heart

Music

  1. Down From His Glory (a cantata)
  2. Night of Miracles (a cantata)
  3. So Send I You

Wanted