Ralph Lowell Peters

Ralph Lowell Peters passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by family, on Nov 3, 2016 in Oak Park, CA, after a short illness. He was 92. Ralph was born in Minneapolis, MN, and grew up in Detroit, MI, during the Great Depression. He helped support his family from a young age, starting with a paper route as a boy. A precocious and fastidious student, he graduated from Cass Tech High School at the age of 16, and after obtaining his Bachelor’s Degree from Wayne State University, became an engineer. He served in World War II as a Naval pilot where he flew the B-24 Liberator. After the War, he began a long career with the Ford Motor Company, first as a truck salesman, working his way up to senior executive positions within the company’s international divisions. In 1953 he married Dolores Piotrowski, with whom he had six children. Ralph’s Ford career took him and his family to Essex, England, and Melbourne, Australia, first as Vice President for Product Planning for Ford of Europe, and culminating in a position as the Vice President of Ford Asia-Pacific. During his 30-year career, he was instrumental in the design and planning of the 1968 Cougar, and the Lincoln Continental Mark II in the U.S., the Capri and Fiesta in Europe (a project featured in the book, Let’s Call it Fiesta), and the Laser in Australia. Over the years, he worked with Ford leaders Lee Iacocca, Robert McNamara and Henry Ford II. “Ralph Peters had come from Detroit where he was responsible for product planning at Lincoln-Mercury. He was enthusiastic, a ready-talker, a charmer, and a spell-binder.” – Edouard Seidler, Let’s Call It Fiesta. Ralph had the great fortune to travel the world, where he relished experiencing diverse cultures and meeting, and often befriending, many people, including Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, Olympic athlete Jesse Owens, racecar driver Dan Gurney, and Saint Mother Theresa, an encounter that particularly resonated with him. In 1982, he and his family settled in San Diego, CA, a town where he had been stationed after the War and remembered fondly. Ralph was known for his insatiable appetite for learning, his sense of humor, his great generosity to family and strangers alike, his humanity, his incredible loyalty, and his love of music, passed onto him by his mother, a piano teacher. He was also a gifted pianist, guitarist, artist, engineer, designer and builder. He will be greatly missed by his extended family and the many people whose lives he touched and graced throughout his long, rich and meaningful life. He is survived by his beloved wife of 63 years, Dolores, and his six children: Mark, Christopher, Laurie, Susan, Rick and Daniel, and twelve grandchildren. He is predeceased by his brother Ollen, and parents Erminetta and Floyd Peters. A private service will be held on Nov. 12 at St. Maximilian Kolbe Church, 5801 Kanan Road, Westlake Village. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Ralph’s favorite charities: SmileTrain (https://www.smiletrain.org/) or St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (https://www.stjude.org/).