Arthur Laverne Peterson was an American educator, political scientist, college president, foundation administrator, and Republican legislator. He served in the Wisconsin State Legislature and Montana House of Representatives, led several colleges and educational organizations, and wrote a 1962 doctoral dissertation on McCarthyism.
Background
Peterson was born on June 27, 1926, in Glyndon, Minnesota, to John M. Peterson and Hilda C. Moline Peterson. Glyndon is a community in northwestern Minnesota whose history developed within the agricultural and transportation networks of the Red River Valley.
He later lived and worked in Wisconsin, Ohio, Arizona, Florida, Pennsylvania, and Montana, and his career combined academic administration, political science, public service, and Republican party work. He served as a captain in the United States Marine Corps during the Korean War.
Education
Peterson received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 1947. Yale, founded in 1701, was one of the major American research universities and liberal-arts institutions of the twentieth century.
He received a Master of Science in physician assistant studies from the University of Southern California in 1949 and pursued postgraduate study at the University of Chicago from 1949 to 1950. The University of Southern California had developed as a major private research university in Los Angeles, while the University of Chicago was known for rigorous graduate education and research in the social sciences and humanities.
Peterson received a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Minnesota in 1962. His dissertation, McCarthyism: Its Ideology and Foundations, examined McCarthyism from the perspective of political science. In 1988, Lebanon Valley College awarded him a Doctor of Laws; the college, founded in 1866, is a liberal-arts institution in Annville, Pennsylvania.
Career
Peterson entered public life as a Republican member of the Wisconsin State Legislature, serving from 1951 to 1955. During the same period he began an academic career in political science at the University of Wisconsin in Eau Claire, advancing from instructor to assistant professor between 1954 and 1960. The University of Wisconsin system was a central institution in the expansion of public higher education in the state during the postwar period.
He joined Ohio Wesleyan University in 1961 and served as an associate professor and later professor of political science. Ohio Wesleyan, founded in 1842, was a private liberal-arts university with a long tradition of undergraduate education in the humanities and social sciences. Peterson also chaired the Ohio Civil Rights Commission from 1963 to 1965 and served on the Ohio Ethics Commission from 1976 to 1980.
From 1960 to 1961, Peterson was assistant to the chairman of the Republican National Committee, and from 1965 to 1966 he was the committee's deputy chairman. In 1966 he became president of the American Graduate School of International Management, then known as the American Institute for Foreign Trade and later associated with Thunderbird School of Global Management. The institution specialized in international business education and the preparation of students for cross-border careers.
Peterson founded and directed the Center for International Business in Los Angeles from 1969 to 1970 and worked as a consultant to the Novin Institute of Political Affairs in Tehran in 1973. He served as president of Lebanon Valley College from 1984 to 1987, after being dean of special programs at Eckerd College from 1980 to 1984. Eckerd College, founded in 1958 in St. Petersburg, Florida, developed a liberal-arts program with an emphasis on interdisciplinary and international education.
From 1987 to 1994, Peterson directed the Academy of Senior Professionals, and from 1988 to 1996 he was executive director of the Florida Association of Colleges and Universities. He later served as president and chief executive officer of the Center for the Study of the Presidency from 1997 to 1999 and as Scott Professor of Leadership at Rocky Mountain College from 1999 to 2002. Rocky Mountain College, founded in 1878 in Billings, Montana, is a private liberal-arts college.
Peterson represented Montana in the state House of Representatives from 2001 to 2003. He subsequently served as president of the Thomas Wathen Foundation Academy in Riverside, California, beginning in 2002, and was a director of Arnold Industries. His career therefore extended from state legislation and university teaching to institutional leadership in international management, higher education, public affairs, and foundation administration.
Achievements
Peterson wrote the doctoral dissertation McCarthyism: Its Ideology and Foundations at the University of Minnesota in 1962. The study analyzed McCarthyism as a political ideology and examined its relationship to conservatism, progressivism, and the political conditions of the early Cold War.
Peterson developed a long career in higher-education administration, serving as president of the American Graduate School of International Management, Lebanon Valley College, and the Center for the Study of the Presidency, as well as leading other educational and public-affairs organizations.
Works
dissertation
McCarthyism: Its Ideology and Foundations
(Doctoral dissertation submitted to the University of Minn...)
1962
Religion
Peterson was affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a Protestant denomination formed in 1957 through the union of the Congregational Christian Churches and the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The denomination combined Congregational traditions of local church governance with Reformed and Christian social-justice traditions.
United Church of Christ congregations have generally emphasized religious liberty, education, civic responsibility, and concern for social welfare. Peterson's documented public career included service on civil-rights and ethics bodies, but specific religious practices or theological statements are not documented.
Politics
Peterson was a Republican who combined academic work in political science with elected service in the Wisconsin State Legislature and the Montana House of Representatives. He also served as assistant to the chairman and later deputy chairman of the Republican National Committee.
His political career developed during the Cold War and the expansion of American higher education, when the Republican Party included both internationalist and conservative currents. His dissertation examined McCarthyism as a political ideology, while his later public roles connected higher education, civic institutions, ethics, and party organization.
Views
Peterson's academic work treated politics as a subject for historical and ideological analysis. His 1962 dissertation on McCarthyism examined its conspiratorial view of history, moral absolutism, neo-isolationism, anti-intellectualism, and direct-democratic themes, placing the movement within comparative political inquiry rather than treating it only as a partisan episode.
His later work in higher education and leadership connected political study with institutional administration, international management, civic responsibility, and public ethics. The documented record supports an interest in the relationship between political ideas, educational institutions, and public leadership.
Membership
Peterson belonged to professional, civic, fraternal, and scholarly organizations that connected his academic, political, military, and community activities. His documented affiliations included the American Political Science Association, the American Judicature Society, the Society of Political Enquiries, the Academy of Political Science, Rotary, the Masons, Pi Sigma Alpha, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and Omicron Delta Kappa.
The American Political Science Association and the Academy of Political Science supported research and discussion in political science, while the American Judicature Society focused on the improvement of courts and judicial administration. Pi Sigma Alpha was an honor society for political science, and Omicron Delta Kappa was a national leadership honor society. Peterson also held leadership roles in the American Judicature Society, Society of Political Enquiries, and Pi Sigma Alpha.
American Political Science Association
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United States
Director
American Judicature Society
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United States
1975
President
Society of Political Enquiries
,
United States
1985
Academy of Political Science
,
United States
Rotary
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United States
Masons
,
United States
Director
Pi Sigma Alpha
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United States
1972
Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia
,
United States
Omicron Delta Kappa
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United States
Interests
Sailing and flying were among Peterson's documented avocations.
Music & Bands
Music was one of Peterson's documented avocations.
Connections
Peterson was the son of John M. Peterson and Hilda C. Moline Peterson. He married Connie Lucille Harr on June 14, 1952; she died on July 26, 2002. Their children were Jon Martin Peterson, Rebecca Ruth Peterson, Donna Harr Peterson, and Ingrid Bliss Peterson. He married Mary Kinum on September 12, 2003.
Arthur LaVerne Peterson dissertation reference
Cites Peterson's 1962 University of Minnesota dissertation, McCarthyism: Its Ideology and Foundations, and summarizes its political-science approach to McCarthyism.
