Rick Peterson
Richard Alan Peterson, 69, died August 5, 2020 in Hoffman Estates, in the Chicago area.
Rick was born on October 10, 1950 in Moline to George Frederick and Janet E. Anderson Peterson. He graduated from Moline High School in 1968 and attended Black Hawk College from 1968 to 1970. He went on to Northern Illinois University and graduated with a degree in Education, with the goal of instilling his love of playing music to his band students.
After graduation, Rick taught band classes in Chicago area High Schools, and was the Head Band Director at Fremd High School at the time of his retirement in 2012. Rick loved teaching his band students, and kept in touch with many of them after graduation.
Another of Rick's loves was playing in The Footstompers, a polka/rock/oldies fusion band that started while Rick and fellow band mates were students at NIU. The band started by playing in bars around NIU, and continued playing for many yeats at venues all around Illinois, gaining a large following of loyal listeners, until the band retired in 2019.
Rick loved playing tennis and golf in his younger years, and continued playing golf all around the country and even in Scotland, until his arthritis hip pain made laying impossible. He loved watching sports of all kinds, but was a huge fan of the Cubs, the Bears, NIU, and the Iowa Hawkeyes. He also loved to hunt and fish with his father, and the two of them took yearly trips for fly fishing in Montana.
In his later years, Rick battled cancer, thinking he had it beat more than once, before it finally took his life in August.
He was preceded in death by his father, George and his mother Janet, and he is greatly missed by his cousins and all of his many life-long friends.