Friends to honor retiring FSCC drama teacher

During his 31-year teaching career at Fort Scott Community College, Rod Peterson made a lasting impact on many of his friends, former students, and colleagues. Later this month, many of those people will get together to honor the long-time speech and drama instructor.

Two of Peterson's long-time friends, local residents Janet Braun and Jackie Webster, have coordinated a special send-off and revelry event to recognize his accomplishments at FSCC and within the community. The special event is open to the public, Braun said.

Braun has gathered up several scrapbooks, old theatre programs, and other memorabilia from the many plays and productions Peterson directed during his career at FSCC, and they will be on display for attendees to view, Braun said.

Many of the people whose lives or careers Peterson has affected in some way over the years have planned to either attend the event or have already sent some sort of recognition to event planners that will be presented during the program, Braun said.

The celebration of Peterson's career is scheduled to take place from 2 to 4 p.m. on April 28 in the FSCC cafeteria, 2108 S. Horton St.

Braun said presentations that will be made at the event are designed to give Peterson the entertaining send-off the respected theatre instructor deserves after his decision earlier this year to move back to Utah to be closer to his grandchildren.

"The reunion part of it will be great," Braun said. "We just want to make it fun."

Several of the people who are listed on the program, which is being kept under wraps until the day of the program, are former students or local people who have acted in plays or musicals that Peterson has directed, Braun said.

The program will also give people the chance, if they wish, to donate money to a local effort to have the drama and theatre office inside the proposed Danny and Willa Ellis Fine Arts Center at FSCC named after Peterson, Braun said.

Construction on the new fine arts center is slated to begin later this year.

Peterson, a native of Canada, moved to United States at the age of 12, and became involved in theater in high school. He later began pursuing a career in theatre while studying at Brigham Young University in Utah, where he received both a bachelor's and master's degree. He and his wife then made the long trip to Fort Scott, where he and his family have lived ever since.

In a March 2005 story in The Fort Scott Tribune, Peterson called Fort Scott "a pretty darn good place to raise a family." Now that all of Peterson's children are off to college or pursuing other careers, he and his wife, Pam, are ready to enjoy retirement and their grandchildren.

He began his FSCC career in 1976 teaching in the debate program, and later convinced FSCC administration to begin a theatre program at the college.

He brought the Fort Scott Town Company Melodrama, an annual summer family production in Fort Scott that ended last year, to life in 1988. That event drew local residents as well as many tourists to the Fort Scott area for nearly 20 years.

He also spearheaded FSCC's annual Broadway tour each November, in which Peterson and a group of theatre-lovers travel to New York City for a four-day trip to watch Broadway musicals and take in the many sights and sounds of the Big Apple.

He has also sponsored a large number of trips each year that gave local residents the chance to watch theatrical productions in other cities such as Kansas City and Branson, Mo.

Peterson was also instrumental in getting children's theatre started in Fort Scott to give young children a chance to experience drama and acting.