Burnis Charles Peters

.Services for Burnis Charles Peters, 95, of Copperas Cove, Texas will be held at Grace United Methodist Church Thursday, August 13, 2015 at 11 am. Interment will follow at Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery Friday, August 14 at 9am. Visitation will be held Wednesday, August 12, 2015 from 5:30-7:30 at Crawford Bowers Funeral Home in Copperas Cove, Texas.

“The Lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage” (Ps. 16:6) Beginning his career as a surveyor, later becoming a civil engineer specializing in road construction, B.C. Peters was, in addition to being respected for his professional skill, a good citizen and public servant, a good husband and father and a good friend to many people over the span of his long meritorious life. He died on August, 10, 2015, at the age of 95. The lines he surveyed brought him to Copperas Cove, Texas, a pleasant place for the last 65 years of his life, and he leaves a heritage of honesty and integrity to all those who knew, admired and loved him.

B.C. Peters was born in Coupland, Texas on May 03, 1920, the son of Edwin and Mary Peters. He graduated from Giddings High School in Giddings, Texas in 1938 and attended business school in Tyler. There he met Dorothy Tucker and they were married on July, 26, 1941. Little did they or their contemporaries who comprised that Greatest Generation realize how their lives would change five months later, in the aftermath of December, 7, 1941.

Enlisting in the United States Navy, B.C. entered military service in September of 1942. A surveyor in the 31st Construction Battalion, popularly known as the Seabees, he was posted to Bermuda as a part of the Destroyers for Bases Treaty with Britain, later to Hawaii, and ultimately to Iwo Jima, where his unit participated in the invasion of the island and constructed the airfields which enabled fighter escorts to accompany bombers in the aerial war over Japan.

Suddenly and dramatically the war in the Pacific ended in August of 1945, and B.C. was discharged in November. Taking a position with the Civil Service in January of 1946, he worked at Camp Swift until the closure of that facility as a permanent base, and in 1948 he moved with his family to what was then Camp Hood, obtaining his certification as a civil engineer and becoming Head of Roads and Grounds with the Post Engineers. He retired from Fort Hood in 1975.

The family had moved to Copperas Cove in 1950, and after his “retirement” B.C. stayed active as a consultant to the city of Copperas Cove and several private engineering firms, the construction manager for two of Copperas Cove’s Schools, an avid golfer, amateur geologist and jewelry maker, and mostly self-taught expert in the budding, grafting and the cultivation of pecan trees.

He was a member of Grace United Methodist Church and the Mount Hiram Lodge #595. His service to the church and the lodge meant everything to him, and he was an officer at almost every level in both. A thirty-third degree Mason, he requested a Masonic service at his interment at the Central Texas State Veterans Cemetery.

B.C. was preceded in death by his brother, Clarence Peters, and his grandson, Brandon Cline. He is survived by his beloved wife of 74 years, Dorothy Peters; his son Charles Peters and his wife Susan of League City; his son Kenneth Peters and his wife Marilyn of Georgetown; his daughter Andrea Cline of Belton; by his grandchildren, Jeff, Douglas, Jonathan, Matthew, John and Meredith; also his seven great-grandchildren and his sister, Carolyn Rogas of Houston.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be given to Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children, PO BOX 199300, Dallas, Texas, 75219-9842 (community.tsrhc.org). The family expresses special gratitude to Southern Care Hospice and the Staff at Stoney Brook Assisted Living Facility for all their help to BC Peters and his family.

Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home in Copperas Cove is in charge of the arrangements.