Walter Peterson’s list of career accomplishments was long, including moderator in Peterborough for 27 years, four terms in the New Hampshire Legislature, a pair of terms as governor, president of what is now Franklin Pierce University for 20 years and interim president of the University of New Hampshire.

Upon his death June 1, 2011, the “People’s governor” was remembered in the June 7 Monadnock Ledger-Transcript as a “transcendent public figure who moved easily between the highest levels of state politics and smallest corners of his community” and a man whose work was “deeply rooted in the public good and building political compromise.”

Former Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, now a member of the U.S. Senate, praised the Republican Peterson by saying, “His legacy is one of trying to work with both sides on whatever is needed to advance policy, and being willing to set aside politics and personal ambition to do what was best for New Hampshire.”