Lloyd Peterson

Lloyd E. Peterson, founder and Chairman of Peterson Farms, Inc., Decatur, Arkansas, died October 2, 2007, at Northwest Medical Center of Benton County, Bentonville, Arkansas. He was ninety-four years of age. Mr. Peterson founded the company, which would eventually become Peterson Farms in 1939. It was initially called Peterson Produce, and was one of the pioneer companies in the chicken business in northwest Arkansas. Early in his career, Mr. Peterson became interested in breeding a better chicken, and established the breeding farm department of the company about 1950. Through many years of experimentation, the breeding farm developed a male breeding cockerel, known as the Peterson Male, which by 1990 commanded 73% of the domestic market for breeders, and 34% of the international market. While the breeding farm was growing the Broiler Department was also growing rapidly and serving hundreds of farmer/customers in northwest Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma and southern Missouri. The company currently employs 1,100 people from the tri-state area. Although plants have been located in various sites over the years, all operations are now conducted in plants in Decatur. Although a highly successful man, he remained to the end an intensely private individual. He was honored many times including being named the Arkansas Poultry Federation "Man of the Year" in 1956-57; received the President's "E" Certificate For Exports in 1977. The presentation of the certificate was made in the Rose Garden of the White House. He was inducted into the Arkansas Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1989. In 1992 he received the Lifetime Achievement award from the National Poultry & Food Distributors Association. These honors were capped by his induction into the American Poultry Society HALL OF FAME in 2001. Mr. Peterson's concern for the environment resulted in two of his most prized honors. One came from the Arkansas Wildlife Federation for his concern for the mallard duck, so important to southeast Arkansas, and his 1990 Conservation Award from the Woodmen of the World Life Insurance Society. In all of the Peterson installations he insisted on making the building blend into the surrounding environment, even to the point of personally marking the trees which could not be cut. In the Georgia installation, one visitor described the grounds as "looking like a country club". While building his own business he was instrumental in helping establish other industries in northwest Arkansas, including J.B. Hunt Company of Lowell, and Simmons Industries of Siloam Springs. He is survive by a daughter Debra "Debbie" Evans of Decatur; a grandson Blake, currently CEO of Peterson Farms, and his wife Kim of Rogers; a granddaughter, Brooke Evans of New York City, and a sister, Dorothy Mae Peterson of Decatur. Mr. Peterson was preceded in death by his wife of sixty years, Lorrayne Wilmoth Peterson, in January, 2007. Funeral services will be 11:00 a.m.,. Friday, October 5, 2007, at the First Baptist Church of Decatur, with Dr. John Terry officiating. Burial will follow at Decatur Cemetery. Visitation will be 5:00 to 7:00 p.m., Thursday, October 4, 2007, at Wasson Funeral Home, Siloam Springs, Arkansas. Memorial contributions may be made to The Circle of Life Hospice, 901 Jones Road, Springdale, AR 72762

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Lloyd Peterson

October 3, 1912 - October 2, 2007