Dr. Lloyd John Peterson

Dr. Lloyd John Peterson, MD, a long-time resident of Greensboro, NC passed away on October 25th, 2021 at the age of 78. The beloved only child of second-generation Swedish immigrants, Lloyd Frederick and Lois Emma Peterson, he was born on July 15, 1943, in Oak Park, IL. In 1951 the family moved to Itasca, IL. Lloyd was Salutatorian of his graduating class at Lake Park High School in Medinah, IL. The first member of his family to attend college, Lloyd earned a BA in Chemistry from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, where he was a member of the Phi Lambda Upsilon Honorary Chemical Society and the Phi Kappa Sigma Fraternity. In 1969 he graduated “with distinction” from Northwestern University Medical School where was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Lloyd completed a Fellowship in Surgical Pathology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN before he started as a surgical intern and junior resident in General Surgery at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. He finished his time at Duke as a Urology Resident and Fellow. In addition to his clinical training, he was active in basic research. He published numerous articles, made multiple presentations, and received several research prizes.

From 1975 to 1977, Lloyd served as a Major in the US Army and was a staff Urologist at Letterman Army Medical Center, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA. He received The Army Commendation Medal. Following his Army service, Lloyd became an Assistant Professor of Urology at Washington University School of Medicine and performed research at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, MO. In 1979, Lloyd moved to Greensboro and joined the Urological practice of Garvey and Hunt (which later merged with other practices to become Alliance Urology), but remained involved with clinical research throughout his entire career. Lloyd served as Chief of Surgery, President of the Medical Board, and sat on the Board of Trustees for Moses Cone Health System. He also chaired numerous hospital committees at both Moses Cone and Wesley Long Hospitals in Greensboro, NC. Lloyd retired from practicing medicine in 2012.

During his years of medical practice Lloyd cared deeply about his patients, the nurses, and staff. With his wonderful sense of humor, he tried to keep things light even in the most serious situations. Many patients recall what he said to them to help them relax as they were about to undergo a procedure. His staff always valued his friendly, endearing demeanor and warm smile.

Lloyd also served as Senior Warden of the Vestry at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church and was on the boards of the Greensboro Country Club, the Wellspring Life Care Community, and the Wellspring Foundation.

Lloyd and his wife, Jane Houston Peterson, met at Northwestern University as freshmen. They married in 1967 in Kansas City, MO and honeymooned in San Francisco following Lloyd’s 2nd year of medical school. Lloyd and Jane lived in Chicago for the remaining 2 years of medical school and then relocated to Durham, NC, for his internship and residency at Duke University, where their daughter, Kristin and son, Kirk were born.

Lloyd was first and foremost a gentleman and a devoted son, husband, father, and grandfather. He was proud of his children and grandchildren and loved participating in their activities, attending sporting events, getting to know their friends, babysitting, helping with schoolwork, running errands, cleaning, building and fixing things, mentoring and generally offering his loving service in any way he could.

Lloyd was a dedicated fan of the Northwestern Wildcats, Chicago Bears and Cubs and the Duke Blue Devils. A love of golf was instilled by his father, and Lloyd cherished the camaraderie he found on the links throughout his life. Lloyd had several weekly golf groups at Greensboro Country Club with close friends. For 20 years, Lloyd and Jane traveled, dined, and laughed endlessly with the couples golf group, the Easy Ryders. He started taking his family on annual ski trips in the early 1980’s which led them to Colorado, Utah, Vermont and Europe, often in the company other families. Lloyd loved to travel the world and found joy in taking pictures that he used to create photobooks which he shared with fellow travelers. While living in San Francisco, he caught the “jogging” bug while running across the Golden Gate Bridge and became an avid runner and competed in dozens of races including the New York City Marathon in 1985. Lloyd and Jane learned to sail together when they lived in San Francisco and being on the water was always one of Lloyd’s great joys. For many years he sailed and raced his yellow Lightning, Sneak A-Tack. He sailed with friends from Beaufort, NC to Bermuda. Later he delighted in captaining their Scout outboard at Figure 8 Island, where he often pulled his kids and grandchildren on tubes and water-skis and was affectionately named Captain Lloyd.

He was an intellectual, a voracious reader, a jokester with a quick wit, a stylish dresser who could be found on the dancefloor at every party. He was known for his loving, humorous, and poetic rhyming toasts that he gave at birthdays, anniversaries and graduations. Lloyd belonged to the NNBC (No Name Book Club) for decades and appreciated the intellectual conversations they had trying to solve the world’s problems. He adored walking and playing fetch with his black Labrador Aiko, and his “grand-dogs” Stella, JoJo, Dixie, and Maisie. Lloyd was a music aficionado, a collector of records, CD’s and ultimately audio files. He was thrilled to finally see The Rolling Stones and John Prine in concert with Jane in 2019.

Lloyd unexpectantly became ill in March of 2020 with a very rare, rapidly progressing form of Alzheimer’s and succumbed to the disease 19 months later. The family is grateful for care of Dr. Mark Perini, Dr. Carmen Dohmeir, Dr. James R. Bateman III of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Lloyd’s devoted caregiver for the last 8 months, Kim Smith, and the staff of Well Spring for the last 3 months.

Lloyd is survived by his beloved wife of 54 years Jane, his daughter Kristin Peterson Edwards, his son Kirk Houston Peterson, daughter-in-law Kimberly Bolick Peterson, and five cherished grandchildren - Hayden, Lucie, and Gretchen Edwards, and Van and Louisa Peterson.

A memorial service and committal will be held at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, 307 N. Greene Street, Greensboro, on Saturday, Nov. 6th at 2pm with a reception following at Greensboro Country Club. COVID-19 protocols are in place and masks are required.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation In Memoriam to: Holy Trinity Episcopal Church Foundation 607, N. Greene St. Greensboro, NC 2740; or to Greensboro ZERO Prostate Cancer Run/Walk allianceurology.com/zero-run-walk Seeley Lab UCSF – Supporting Neurodegeneration Research seeleylab.ucsf.edu/giving.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.haneslineberryfhnorthelm.com for the Peterson family.