Harold Wayne Peters

Harold Wayne Peters was born July 16, 1933, to Ben and Mary (Howard) Peters in a white house still standing in Gasconade, Missouri. Harold attended grade school in Gasconade, where he met Jane Kuhn, the love of his life. He graduated from Hermann High School in 1951 and in the fall of that year, he enrolled at the University of Missouri, Columbia. He and Jane were married in the Spring of 1952.

Known as “Grump” for much of his life, he earned a degree in Civil Engineering and was inducted into Tau Beta Pi, the oldest engineering honor society in the nation. Having also been a cadet involved in ROTC at Mizzou, at graduation in 1955, Harold was commissioned a second lieutenant in the United States Air Force.

At a young age, Harold was fascinated with airplanes and flying. He vividly remembered watching scores of new bombers fly over Gasconade for delivery elsewhere during WWII. In 1950, he had his first ride in an airplane. On a school sports trip to Rolla, he and his friends discovered they could get a ride for $5 each from a man at the Vichy airstrip. And that is how it started.

Now answering to his military nickname “Pete”, he was stationed at bases in Georgia, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Ohio, and South Korea. Norton AFB, California was his last active-duty assignment, and Harold retired in 1976. He ended his Air Force career with over 5,100 hours in the cockpit, allowing him to wear the wings with a wreath, the coveted Command Pilot Wings. 

After 22 years, he and Jane retired in Texas, but soon realized Hermann was where they belonged. They built a house in the woods near Hermann in 1991.

Harold always had an interest in finance and investments. In his retirement, he was able to devote time to furthering the cause of financial literacy. He spent much of his time writing retirement papers and designing mathematically correct calculator programs, which focused on management costs and fees. After sending a letter, handwritten in pencil, to the CEO of Texas Instruments, he was asked to work with one of their programmers to create an application of his retirement program for instructional use in TI calculators presently used in high school classrooms teaching financial literacy. 

In April 2025, at age 91, Harold made the decision to move to Texas to be closer to his eldest daughter Debbie and her family. Harold passed away on June 29, 2025 in McKinney, Texas.
 
He is survived by his daughter Debbie Beckham and husband Garry of Plano, Texas, daughter Diana Beckham and husband David of Abilene, Texas, and daughter Libbee Bartlett and husband Greg of Highland, California. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, Leah, Eric, Jill, Billy, Jessica, Allen, Lisa and Amy, 17 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren.

Harold is preceded in death by his beloved wife Jane, his parents, Ben and Mary Peters and older brother Dale, who passed at early age in 1970.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, July 26th from 10:00 to 11:30 p.m. at Toedtmann & Grosse Funeral Home, Hermann.  Graveside services will follow at 12:00 noon at Gasconade Cemetery, Gasconade, Missouri. Both will include military honors. 

In lieu of flowers memorial donations may be given to the City of Gasconade for cemetery and community center upkeep.

Harold will be missed by his family, relatives and friends, but as he told us many times, he had been talking with Mom and was ready to see her again. They are together now. May they both rest in peace.