Obituaries

Arthur V. Peterson, 95, nuclear engineer

Arthur V. “Pete” Peterson, a retired Army colonel who oversaw the development of the atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II and a pioneer in the development of nuclear power, died March 24 of natural causes in his sleep at a retirement home in Seattle. He was 95.

His career in nuclear engineering began in 1942 when the Army suddenly transferred him from the 36th Combat Engineer Regiment at Fort Bragg, N.C., to join the Army”s secret Manhattan Project, the group assigned by President Roosevelt to develop and build an atomic bomb.

Col. Peterson worked closely with a team that included Nobel laureates Enrico Fermi and Arthur Compton at the University of Chicago to build the world”s first atomic reactor. On Dec. 2, 1942, under the abandoned west stands of the university”s football stadium, Stagg Field, the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was achieved.

When the project spilled over from Chicago to Oak Ridge, Tenn., then to Hanford, Wash., and then to Los Alamos, N.M., Col. Peterson was named director of the combined operations for the production of fissionable material. A number of processes were under way, and it was his job to combine the efforts to produce the atomic bomb at the earliest possible date. He made innumerable trips to locations across the country where work on the bomb was progressing. He left the country only once ” to consult with Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in England just before D-Day.

When the country turned after the war to the development of peaceful uses of atomic energy for research and power generation, Col. Peterson helped lead the effort to bring the benefits of atomic energy to the world. In 1946, he was named chief of the Fissionable Materials Branch, Production Division, of the new Atomic Energy Commission in Washington. In 1953, thinking that atomic energy also could be developed through private industry, he became general manager of the new Atomic Energy Division of American Machine and Foundry Co. in New York City. Under his leadership, about 20 research reactors were built in countries around the world.

In 1958, Col. Peterson formed his own consulting firm, AVP Associates, and kept working on nuclear power planning and development well into his 70s.

Col. Peterson was born in Morristown, N.J. Fascinated by science, building and new technology (including radio) during his childhood on the East Side of Manhattan, he graduated from Stuyvesant High School with honors, and in 1930 entered New York University, graduating in 1934 with a bachelor”s degree in civil engineering.

He earned a master’s degree in civil engineering from Cornell in 1937. After working as an engineer in New Jersey, he returned in 1940 to Cornell to conduct research for the Firestone Tire Co. A reserve officer, he was called into active Army service in June 1941 at Plattsburg, N.Y. There, he married his college sweetheart, Marie-Louise “ML” Darrieulat of Ithaca, N.Y, whose father taught fencing at Cornell. He was reassigned to the Manhattan Project the next year.

Survivors include two sons, Art and John; five grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. His wife died in 2004, and a daughter, Medley, died in 2006.

Douglas H. Soutar, 89, labor relations expert

Douglas H. Soutar, a leader in the field of labor-management relations, died March 13 at the La Loma Care Center in Litchfield Park, Ariz. He was 89.

Born in Oklahoma City, he grew up in Sacramento, Calif. He was a graduate of Sacramento High School, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he was an editor of the Law Review.

In 1942, he came to Washington with Dean Lloyd Garrison, Nathan Feinsinger and other faculty members and became a member of the staff of the War Labor Board. Later, he became a naval officer and served on the destroyer USS John Rodgers during the Pacific Campaign of World War II.

After the war, he was labor relations counsel with the American Trucking Association and counsel with Sunshine Biscuits Inc. In 1951, he joined the American Smelting and Refining Co., now known as Asarco LLC, where he had a successful and distinguished 33-year career, serving as assistant general counsel, director of labor relations, vice president of industrial relations and personnel, and senior vice president of industrial relations and personnel.

Described by the New York Times as “the dean of industrial bargainers,” he was a founder, member, director, president or chairman of numerous labor-management organizations.

In Washington, he played a major role in the staffing of several presidential administrations, from Cabinet officers on down, and testified before congressional committees on many occasions. He also helped organize the wage- and price-control task force under President Nixon, and was an alternate member of the Pay Board and staffed most of it. He was twice a U.S. delegate to the International Labor Organization in Geneva.

He was an Eagle Scout, a longtime member of the YMCA, a member of the board of directors and the Executive Committee of the Episcopal Board of Overseas Parishes, and a member of Rotary International. In Connecticut, he was a member of the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Board of Appeals and a director of the Greenwich Taxpayers” Association. In Arizona, he was a member of the board of trustees of the Sun Health Foundation and served on several of its committees.

He was a member of many business and social clubs, including the Downtown Athletic Club and the University Club in New York, the Metropolitan Club of Washington, the Capitol Hill Club and Belle Haven Country Club.

He lettered in basketball and track at Sacramento High School and lettered in track at the University of Wisconsin, where he had an athletic scholarship. He also was known for his phenomenal throwing arm. In 1936, Branch Rickey, then general manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, tried to sign him to a baseball contract, but he declined the offer.

He was married to Patricia Lockett Soutar, also of Sacramento, for 63 years until her death in 2003.

He is survived by four children, Douglas L. Soutar of Fairfield, Conn., Nancy J. Soutar of Sacramento, Richard G. Soutar of Woodstock, Ga., and Clay S. Halsey of Pawcatuck, Conn.; six grandchildren and one great-grandchild.