Lynda Peterson was a Cobb County chemistry teacher with impressive credentials:
• Fifteen years as a chemist in labs of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and South Fulton Hospital.
• A bachelor’s degree in chemistry and physics, a master’s in science education and International Baccalaureate certification in chemistry.
• Winner in 1992 of the Presidential Award as Georgia Teacher of the Year.
Beyond these achievements, she also brought energy and enthusiasm to her classrooms and labs at Osborne and Campbell high schools.
Tony Arasi of Marietta, former principal at Osborne High, said Peterson had an excellent rapport with her students. “Lynda didn’t have to scare them into learning. She motivated them,” he said.
While she set high standards for her students, he added, she also had empathy for those with personal or learning difficulties.
“Lynda was a dynamic, engaging teacher who was committed to excellence,” said Terry Davis of Atlanta, a biology teacher formerly at Campbell.
She was popular among her faculty colleagues as well as her students, Davis added, amusing fellow teachers at lunch with turns of phrase from her Southern background, which he called “Lynda-isms.”
Michelle Barnett of Powder Springs, a former faculty colleague, said, “To be an effective high school teacher, you have to really like kids that age. The Osborne kids recognized that in Lynda, and they liked her back.”
Lynda Hollums Peterson, 70, died Tuesday at Tranquility Hospice in Austell after a 17-year struggle with cancer. Her funeral took place Saturday at Smyrna First United Methodist Church. Carmichael Funeral Home, Smyrna, was in charge of arrangements.
A metro Atlanta native, she was a graduate of Headland High School in East Point and of what was then the Women’s College of Georgia (now the Georgia College and University in Milledgeville) where she majored in chemistry and physics.
Her career as a chemist included working in a USDA research project in Mississippi measuring levels of DDT in farm animals and later analyzing blood samples at the CDC and at South Fulton Hospital. In 1984 she earned her master’s in education at Georgia State University, her ticket to a mid-career change and 20-plus years as a teacher.
Besides teaching, Peterson was a delegation leader for four three-week-long overseas trips sponsored by People to People, a nonprofit organization that arranges American students’ travel abroad. The trips she led were to China, the Soviet Union, Costa Rica and lastly Australia and New Zealand.
“Lynda was a Pied Piper. The kids loved her,” said former People to People program director Keith Currie of Spokane, Wash. “Each time she would prepare a group of 30 or so teens from all kinds of backgrounds – inner city, Buckhead, suburban and rural — she impressed upon them the necessity to represent America well while in their host countries. She did that in a polite and kind way, and it worked.”
Peterson was a valued member of Cumberland United Methodist Church in Smyrna.
“She brought life and light, energy and excitement to our church,” said its pastor, the Rev. Jenny Anderson. “Lynda oversaw the work of the staff, taught Sunday school, served on every committee, took all of our classes on the Bible even though she knew it better than most, lent her beautiful soprano solos to the choir and performed and directed a number of plays that the church sponsored.”
Anderson added that Peterson influenced her church to be a more involved and welcoming part of the Smyrna community.
Surviving are her husband of 48 years, Edward Peterson; two daughters, Heather Ivester of Carrollton and Lisa Futch of Flowery Branch; a son, John Peterson of Smyrna, and seven grandchildren.
About the Author
