Résumé

Peters had a 35-year career teaching at the University of California, and became an authority on architectural lighting. His obituary noted: "Richard was awarded an opportunity to go study the works of Alvar Aalto in Finland and after his studies at both Princeton and his sabbatical in Finland and Denmark, he became a world authority on the importance of lighting in design. Richard became the foremost consultant throughout Europe and the United States assisting leading architects in lighting in architecture." (See Legacy.com, "Richard Carr Peters, 1929-2021," published 02/12/2021, accessed 01/11/2022.)

Yeoman, US Naval Reserve, 1950-1953. Peters served at the Naval Air Station, Jacksonville, Jacksonville, FL, and in Malta. On Malta, he worked for the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.

Associate, Charles Moore and Richard C. Peters, Architects, Berkeley, CA, c. 1962.

Principal, Richard C. Peters, Architect, Berkeley, CA.

Partner, Peters and Clayberg, Architects, Berkeley, CA, 1967-1975.

Partner, Peters, Clayberg and Caulfield, Architects, Berkeley, CA, 1975- . Peters maintained a specialty in architectural lighting, and was a sought-after lighting consultant.

Teaching

Assistant Professor, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA, 1958- .

Associate Professor, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA.

Professor, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA. -c. 1993.

Chairman, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Department of Architecture, Berkeley, CA.

Director, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Department of Architecture, Graduate Thesis Studios, Berkeley, CA.

Professional Activities

Member, American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Director, AIA, San Francisco Chapter, San Francisco, CA.

President, Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA).

Lighting Designer, Louisiana World Exposition, New Orleans, LA, 05/12/1984 – 11/11/1984. His obituary said of this experience: "Working with the architects for the fair, Charles Moore, William Turnbull and New Orleans architect, Allen Eskew, the opportunity provided a great challenge do lighting design on a grand scale." (See Legacy.com, "Richard Carr Peters, 1929-2021," published 02/12/2021, accessed 01/11/2022.)

Professional Awards

Fellow, American Institute of Architects (FAIA).

Recipient, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley Citation for Distinguished Achievement and Notable Service to the University. 1994.

High School / College

Graduate, Robert E. Lee High School, Jacksonville, FL, c. 1947.

Coursework, Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, FL, c. 1948

Coursework, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, c. 1949. At the University of Florida, he joined the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity.

B.Arch., Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), Atlanta, GA, c. 1954-1956.

M.Arch., Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 1956-1958. At Princeton, Peters served as a teaching assistant to the noted architectural historian Donald Drew Egbert (1902-1973). He was at Princeton at the same time as the architect Charles W. Moore (1925-1993).

College Awards

Full scholarship, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ. 1956-1958.

Relocation

The family of Richard C. Peters moved a good bit before 1940, while his father, Derek, worked at various sales jobs. Richard was born in Tarrytown, NY in 1929. Just after his birth in 1930, his parents and brother lived at 300 South Broadway in the Washington Irving Gardens Apartment Building, completed in 1928. They paid $110 per month rent, a relatively substantial amount for the time. He spent his early years here before his family relocated to Woodmont, CT, in New Haven County, where they resided in 1935.

His family moved to Jacksonville, FL, by the late 1930s. In 1940, they lived in the well-to-do Ortega Terrace neighborhood of the city. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: Duval, Florida; Roll: m-t0627-00584; Page: 7B; Enumeration District: 16-11, accessed 11/04/2021.) Peters graduated from Jacksonville's Robert E. Lee High School in the late 1940s. The family rented its dwellings in both 1930 and 1940.

Following high school, Peters attended the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, FL, and then the University of Florida in Gainesville.

During the Korean conflict, Peters served in the US Naval Reserve, stationed in Jacksonville, FL, as part of the VP-741 Naval Patrol Squadron. The US Navy also sent him to the island of Malta, where he became a Yeoman within the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps.

Following military service, Peters transferred from the University of Florida to the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, from which he graduated in the mid-1950s. Subsequently, he elected to attend graduate school in architecture at Princeton University between 1956 and 1958.

After Princeton, Peters relocated to Berkeley, CA, where he obtained a teaching appointment at the University of Calfiornia and also worked and taught with the architect Charles Moore.

Peters moved from Berkeley, CA, to Sonoma, CA, in 1990. He died at this residence there on 01/17/2021, and was interred at the Sonoma Mountain Cemetery.

Parents

His father was Derek Charles Carr Peters, Sr., (born 03/21/1899 in Streatham, Surrey, England-d. 05/16/1972 in Duval County, FL), his mother, Beatrice Inez Greene (born 12/31/1896 in Northampton, MA- d. 12/27/1985 in DeKalb County, GA). They wed on 12/09/1922 in Manhattan, NY. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, New York, U.S., Extracted Marriage Index, 1866-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014, accessed 11/04/2021.)

Beatrice Greene was the only child of Willard Greene (born c. 03/1872 in NY), a druggist and retail drug salesman, and Inez Guilford (born c. 07/1876 in MA). During Beatrice's formative years, the Greenes resided in Northampton, MA. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1900; Census Place: Northampton Ward 5, Hampshire, Massachusetts; Page: 1; Enumeration District: 0637; FHL microfilm: 1240654 and Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Northampton Ward 5, Hampshire, Massachusetts; Roll: T624_593; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0705; FHL microfilm: 1374606, accessed 11/04/2021.) By age 23, she had moved out onto her own, living in Branford, CT, and working as a bookkeeper in a bank. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1920; Census Place: Branford, New Haven, Connecticut; Roll: T625_188; Page: 15B; Enumeration District: 497, accessed 11/04/2021.)

Derek Peters's parents were both English, William James Peters (born c. 1873 in Camberwell, Surrey, England) and Maud Mary Carr (born c. 1877 in Waltham Abbey, Essex, England), who wed at the Abbey Church of Waltham Holy Cross on 06/16/1898. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Essex Record Office; Chelmsford, Essex, England; Essex Church of England Parish Registers Source Information Ancestry.com. Essex, England, Church of England Marriages, 1754-1935 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2019, accessed 11/04/2021.)

Derek last lived in Dunstable, Bedfordshire, England, before immigrating to the US with an older relative, Thomas W. Peters (born c. 1889), who had last lived in Carbis Bay, Cornwall, England and worked as a carpenter. They sailed between Southampton, England, and New York, NY, aboard the White Star liner R.M.S. Majestic beginning on 10/22/1913, and arrived about a week later. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1913; Arrival: New York, New York, USA; Microfilm Serial: T715, 1897-1957; Line: 10; Page Number: 87 Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Arriving Passenger and Crew Lists (including Castle Garden and Ellis Island), 1820-1957 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, accessed 11/04/2021.) Soon after arriving, at age 18, Derek served in the US Army between 06/091917 and 04/23/1919 during World War I. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011, accessed 11/04/2021.)

By 1930, he bought and sold Oriental rugs in Tarrytown, NY, as per the US Census. A decade later, the 1940 US Census indicated that Derek Peters had completed three years of college, and worked as the district manager for the Southern states for a bathroom fixtures company.

Richard Peters had two brothers Derek C.C. Peters, Jr., (born c. 1924 in NY-d. 2012) and Thomas W. Peters (born c. 1935 in CT). In 2021, Thomas Peters resided in Conover, NC.

Spouse

He met Donald Ballard Rice, Jr. (d. 1997 in CA) at Princeton University in 1957, and the two spent the rest of their lives together, living first in Berkeley, CA, and later Sonoma, CA. After a serious accident, in 1988, Donald became a paraplegic, and they decided to moved to Sonoma for his benefit.

Peters was an expert in the field of architectural lighting.

• Tarrytown, NY (Architect's Birth)
  Tarrytown, NY 10591

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• Sonoma, CA (Architect's Death)
  Sonoma, CA 95476

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