Walter J. Peterson Page 50l - Walter J. Peterson, president of Walter J. Peterson Company, Inc., William Alden Smith building, Grand Rapids, Michigan, is a successful representative of the newer advertising business which has with-in the past generation become the voice of the business world. Walter J. Peterson is a native of Sweden, where he was born December 29, 1886, and there in the schools of his native country he received his early education. When eighteen years of age he came to the United States and first located in Chicago. There by his early employment with A. W. Shaw and Long Critchfield Corporation Advertising Agency he received an excellent fundamental training in the advertising business. He remained with them for five years and in 1913 chose Grand Rapids as his field of activity and organized the Sherman Advertising Company from which grew the present Walter J. Peterson Company, Inc. The name was changed to the present form in 1919 with Walter J. Peterson, president; Mrs. S. T. Peterson, vice-president, and Thord R. Bruce, secretary. Mr. Peterson finds time aside from his business to take an active interest in the Peninsular Club and belongs to the Fountain Street Baptist Church. He was married in November, 1908 to Miss Signe Tyden, and they have five children, William, born November 16, 1909, now a student in the Central high school; Dorothy, born March 25, 1913; June, born June 15, 1914, and Bob and Betty, twins, born November 14, 1919.

Transcriber: Gloria Paas
Created: 25 November 2002