LeRoy Lawrence Peters

LeRoy Lawrence Peters, age 89, of Placerville, California passed away on Thursday, June 16, 2022. LeRoy was born July 16, 1932. He will be laid to rest at Westwood Hills Memorial Park in Placerville, California.

On July 16, 1932, LeRoy Lawrence Peters entered the world in the small country town of Jeffers, Minnesota. His life was extraordinary for all the ways he embraced the ordinary. With hard work, faith and adventure, he built enduring relationships with family, friends and God. Gerhard (George) and Hattie Peters, both oldest children of Dutch German immigrants, raised LeRoy and his younger sister Deloris, on a farm surrounded by countless cousins and caring aunts and uncles. He attended a one room schoolhouse through 8th grade and, at about 17, LeRoy met the love of his life, Arlene Marie Roberts, from St. James.

After high school, during the Korean Conflict, LeRoy enlisted in the Air Force and married Arlene in 1953 while stationed at Travis Air Force Base. In 1954, they welcomed their first child, Douglas. After the service, LeRoy successfully completed a bachelor of science degree in Mechanical Engineering, a field Arlene thought suited him after skimming the UC Berkeley catalog. His studies took them from Berkeley to Modesto and then Fresno where their daughter, Susan, was born in 1958.

For the next few years, the Peters family moved to Stockton, Reno and Livermore, while LeRoy began his career, before settling in Sacramento's Arden Park neighborhood in 1964. LeRoy worked for top engineering firms, before launching Peters Engineering in 1969, a company that is still going today. Long work hours, coupled with little league coaching, father-daughter dinners, road trips, camping, boating, skiing and vacationing at Lake Tahoe, where they eventually built a cabin. There were many happy years while they raised their family and developed lifelong friendships with families like the Strohs, Garfields, Lydons, and Taylors.

In 1978, LeRoy and Arlene, now empty-nesters, began their next adventure with the purchase of 163 rolling acres they called Deerhaven Ranch. For the next 14 years, LeRoy raised black angus cattle, acres of corn and vegetables, horses, pigs, chickens and dogs all while commuting 75 minutes to his business in Sacramento. El Dorado Federated Church became a major focus of LeRoy and Arlene’s time and talent as they took in a Laotian refugee family and helped initiate community service programs, many continuing to this day. At the same time, LeRoy and Arlene traveled extensively across the globe as well as across the U.S. visiting many sites and National Parks in their motorhome, often with close friends.

In 1992, a new chapter started with LeRoy and Arlene’s move to a 10-acre estate in nearby Camino. Whether Deerhaven or the “Camino House,” their home was a gathering place. From Thanksgivings with bonfires to tractor rides for the grandkids to entertaining groups like their Riverview Dinner Club, life was fulfilling not to mention full! Somehow there was grace and goodness even when Arlene was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in the mid-1990s. For more than a decade, LeRoy cared for her himself. Eventually, he drove three hours everyday to her memory care center, to simply sit and hold her hand.

After moving to a historic Placerville house and Arlene passing away in 2006, LeRoy began another season, regularly helping to deliver food, mentoring troubled kids, and playing bridge. He was a member of the church choir, men’s book club, Neighbors group, and a lunch buddy group called ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out). He was known for his larger-than- life presence, cruising down Main Street in his electric car with an ice-chest trunk and his faithful dog, Loafer, at his side.

An avid reader and letter writer, LeRoy cared deeply about social justice and the state of the world. In 2008, he faced prostate cancer, and in 2010 suffered a major heart attack while volunteering in Haiti, but bounced back with his contagious spirit and compassionate heart. He continued to travel, motorcycle, RV and attend grandkids’ sports, dance recitals, graduations, ordinations, weddings, and reunions near and far. In 2015, LeRoy purchased a house in a Placerville retirement community. He was diagnosed with multiple myeloma in 2019 but successfully reached remission last fall with the support of close friends like Becky and Bob. He treasured his friends like Sandy, John and JoAn, Shirley, Art and Lorna and so so many more.

Exactly one month before his 90th birthday, LeRoy died on June 16th, 2022 at 9:29PM from complications of COVID-19. He is survived by his son Doug and daughter-in-law Holly, his daughter Susan and son-in-law Dave, nine grandchildren (Brian, Jen, Catherine, Tom, Scott, Heather, Chris, Katie, Krista and partners) and 11 great grandchildren (Jacob, Joelle, Lizzie, Jack, Teddy, Max, Joey, Daniel, Ascher, Brayden and Riley) with a 12th great grandchild on the way! He also leaves behind his sister Deloris and brother-in-law Gerry, dear nieces and nephews (Jean, Joey, Carol, Dawn, Chris,Lisa and their partners) former son-in-law Doug, former daughter-in-law Betty and countless friends.

LeRoy was but one man in this world, but he was everything to us. He filled a room, filled our hearts and was a living example of what it means to extend yourself for another. It is difficult to acknowledge all the important relationships that marked LeRoy's life because relationships were what mattered to him most.

He was the oldest child on both sides of his family with 32 first cousins. When his father's generation had all passed away, one of his cousin's told him he was now the patriarch, and as the story goes, LeRoy got a twinkle in his eye and just said, "I guess so. What are the duties?" Whatever they were, he fulfilled them.

Life is good, he’d say, when we are willing to see the good, because it is always there.

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