Richard B. "Rich" Peters

Rich, who is the Plant Manager at Dolco Packaging, comes to Wenatchee from Worthington, Minnesota, with a 10-year stopover in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

Growing up in Worthington, in the southwest part of Minnesota, Rich lived with a close family of three sisters and two brothers. His bride-to-be, Andre', also lived there on her parents' farm. Rich's mother recently moved back to Worthington, since his father's death on leap day, 2000. All of the siblings, spouses and grandchildren have taken this loss very hard.

Rich and Andre' have been married 22 years and have two sons:

• Brandon, age 20, is a Junior at Seattle Pacific University, pursuing a career in medical research. He was the Class Valedictorian in 1998, active in the Key Club and sports and has a love of learning.
• Derrick, age 17, is a Senior at Eastmont High School. He, too, is active in Key Club, being the current District Lieutenant Governor. In his spare time he is on the Swim Team and the Golf Team. Rich says, "His parents hope he receives a scholarship in one of those areas."

Andre' owns the AppleSeed Quilt Shop in Downtown Wenatchee and Rich says that she is one of the strongest people he has had the pleasure of knowing. We think he meant in character, but he went on to say, "To date, she remains the only person to ever have given me a black eye. She claims that it was an accident and is sticking to that story."

Post-high school education for his career began at Worthington's Prairie Lakes Vocational School, followed by studies at Iowa Great Lakes Community College.

Rich also attended many seminars and short courses in leadership, management and supervision, as well as in electrical, mechanical, industrial hydraulics and quality control skills.

More recently, in 1993 Rich received a 2-year degree from Wenatchee Valley College. He is a member of the Society of Plastic Engineers.

Rich, in his 10 years at Sioux Falls, managed three shifts of machinist, electrical and mechanical specialists at the Bedford Plastics - Amoco Foam Products Company, a plastic extrusion and thermoforming plant. He was responsible for installation and maintenance of 17 million dollars of production equipment.

Rich believes that it is important to have high goals, such as:

• To break the Washington State 10 pound record for Walleye.
  (Rich "claims" to have caught two fish over 11 pounds in the last year.)
• To break the current State record of over 18 pounds.
• Then to break the World record of over 25 pounds!

Rich says, "When this is accomplished I will write a book, "The Quest to Catch the World Record." I am sure this will have some very humerous fish stories. I enjoy fishing with my wife, even though she generally catches the most and the biggest. Well, if she breaks the record, that is fine with me."

The Peters also enjoy camping, time with family and friends, a walk in the rain, hunting, wood carving, learning taxidermy and rooting for the Minnesota Vikings!

Introduced to the club by Gene Anderson, Rich has been a member since 1995 and has 2 years of perfect attendance. He is a Paul Scea Fellow and Sustaining Paul Scea Fellow. His other current and past Wenatchee Rotary roles include:

• Current member of the Board of Directors.
• Served as President of the Foundation.

Worked on the Railroad Depot and the Lincoln Park Children's Playground.
Rich observes, "The neatest Rotary project I have been involved with was the Lincoln Park Playground. Gene Anderson did an outstanding job coordinating it!"

Now after living here for almost 10 years, he comments,
"We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to move to God's country. We decided to try it out for two years, at which time the family would vote. It was unanimous..we now call Wenatchee "HOME" and feel truly blessed by God over our lifetimes."

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