Winfield (Wiff) Peterson:  

Life I’ve lived in Natick, Mass (Home of Champions) since 1958, with the exception of several years when I was in college, the military, grad school and 2 years afterwards. My wife, Ann, and I are both alumni of Tufts where we met, and where I greatly enjoyed fraternity life (Delta Tau Delta). Between college and grad school, during the Vietnam War, I spent 3 years in the Navy, leaving as a Lieutenant Jr. Grade, and learning much about leadership, teamwork, and responsibility for others. It was in the Navy, standing watches on the top of our diesel submarine’s sail that I developed my career interest in becoming a “practical environmentalist.” After 2 years of grad school I started my career in environmental engineering and operation of water pollution control facilities and water treatment plants. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of starting and growing 3 successful operating businesses: Metcalf & Eddy Services (1973 – 1991, ultimately $45 M in revenues and 330 employees); Woodard & Curran’s O&M Business (1991-2002, $24M in revenues and 170 employees); and, Aquarion Operating Services (2002-2007, $41M in revenues, and 280 employees). Needless today, none of those were just my doing, but rather team efforts, in which I formed some of my strongest friendships which continue to this day. Fortunately, I’ve been able to travel on business to most of our 50 states as well as to Puerto Rico, Brazil, and Egypt for projects in those locations, and have trained hundreds of pollution control and water treatment operators and managers, no doubt learning as much or more from them as they may have from me. I’ve also been able to get to a lot of other great places on vacations, diving and sailing in the Caribbean, hiking the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, for example, or visiting Chichen Itza ruins in Mexico, or visiting Italy several times (our favorite) or England. One place we spent quite a bit of time when I was younger, then for one period of my work life was Maine, where we bought a vacation home and enjoy spending as much time as possible. I'm an avid reader and we enjoy reading, spending time jogging or walking the beach, or enjoying other activities in that clean Maine air. Throughout my life I’ve enjoyed many sports-scuba diving, sky diving, swimming, biking, running, tennis, racquetball, golf, karate, shooting (rifle and pistol), sailing, sports car racing and flying (private pilot). Although my right knee is still a bit lose from a Navy injury, I ran a couple of marathons in the 80’s and completed 3 triathlons in the early 90’s. Our son, Win was born in 1981, and he has been the highlight of my wife and my lives together. Win, Ann and I are very close. He attended Natick Schools is currently a successful software engineer living in the Boston area and just a great person. With the sale of Aquarion Operating Services completed in July of 2007 I've become an independent operations consultant working part-time out of our homes in Natick and Saco, Maine. This gives me time to enjoy lots of interests while still working part-time to help with water pollution control operations. Ann and I both work out, are avid readers, and enjoy movies, and travel. I’m looking forward to continued learning and explorations, and networking with old and new friends. School My family moved to Natick when I was in the 7th grade and I felt like a “new” kid for a few years, even though we had already moved 9 times before arriving in Natick. Fortunately that was the last move. I became an Episcopal altar boy, loved camping and was a Boy Scout (giving up scouts my Jr. year, 4 merit badges short of Eagle Scout), needing time for wrestling and to get my drivers license. I had a paper route all through Jr/Sr High School and worked at Stop & Shop for spending money. I liked sports, playing sandlot football behind East Natick School, playing Little League and Babe Ruth league baseball, high school wrestling and informally gymnastics, while dabbling in track with my best friend Asa Dye. The wrestling team started for the first time as a “minor” sport under our Chemistry Teacher (Mr Genoa) who inspired me in Chemistry and was the main reason I studied Chemical Engineering in College. One of the kids, Russell Leavitt wrote a letter to the Globe complaining that Wrestling was only a minor sport and the paper published an interesting article on it. I also was involved in drama (When Robbie Does My Homework-Coolidge, Thieves Carnival and South Pacific- NHS) and Nat’l Honor Society. I first became friends with Greg Taylor during our involvement with Thieves Carnival and we’re still best friends today, some 40+ years later. I can remember many dark nights walking home from HS to East Natick, after the busses had left, hoping my mother would pick us up along the way (sometimes she did, and sometimes she didn’t). I also remember lifting weights at other kids’ homes (usually in the basement) as the school didn’t have much for weight facilities (at least not for wrestlers) in those days. And I remember Casey’s Diner when it was across the street from the Library (where the bank is now), apple cider from the mill on Rockland St, our great football teams, and driving lessons at NHS learning to stop on hills and start-up again, stopping on the Florence St hill, right in front of the house we now live in (who would have known). I remember doing volunteer work at Camp Arrowhead, and with Sare Madden at nursing homes in Wellesley (I think). I also remember going to Nantasket Beach, and it’s somewhat small-world-ish that I came to work with the Town of Hull where Nantasket Beach is, in optimizing and managing their water pollution control facilities in later years. My memories of Natick and Natick schools in the late 50’s and 60’s are of a pretty typical middle-class town, and that’s a main reason why we eventually bought a house in Natick, so our son could have a similar experience growing up. College Personal Bio- College I went to Tufts, enrolling as an engineer to avoid having to take a language (having struggled for 4 years with 3 years of French). Although warned about Chemical Engineering as a grind, I liked Chemistry and decided to declare that major at the end of my freshman year. Of 44 of us who started, only 14 graduated so I guess it was a grind. My freshman roommate and I were thrown in together, on a floor of rowdy freshman. We all had a great time freshman year, rushing fraternities, playing sports, and working hard. I rushed DTD, AEP, DU, and possibly ATO then joined DTD, although I liked them all. I became good friends with several other freshmen, including Ken Jenkins, from Braintree, a friend throughout Tufts. My roommate thought we were not serious enough and transferred to WPI after freshman year. I wrestled for two years before the challenge of loosing 20 to 25 lbs every fall finally got old. My Jr....Expand for more