Michael Downes Peterson, 52, of Chestnut Hill, an investment management consultant, died July 22 of brain cancer at Keystone Hospice in Wyndmoor.
Prior to his illness, Mr. Peterson had been executive vice president at Pzena Investment Management in New York. Earlier he had been an associate consultant at McKinney and Co., in New York, and a professor of operations at Indiana University.
Born in San Rafael, Cal., Mr. Peterson spent his childhood in Atherton, Cal., and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School. He was a graduate of Princeton University, where he won the Halbert White Prize for outstanding performance in economics and played on both the junior varsity and varsity tennis teams.
He won won a Keasbey Scholarship for study at Trinity College, Cambridge, England, where he earned an M.A. in mathematics. Following his time in England, He earned a Ph.D. in management science at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Mr. Peterson was a philanthropist who focused on organizations dedicated to the relief of poverty and development.
He is survived by his wife, Sarah; sons Colin, Matthew and Timothy; his parents, Donald and Nancy Peterson, of Portola Valley, Calif; and a sister, Karen Peterson-Iyer, of Menlo Park, Calif.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 15, at 318 W. Highland Ave. in Chestnut Hill. Memorial donations may be made to the National Brain Tumor Society at braintumor.org or Accelerate Brain Cancer Cure at abc2.org to support brain cancer research. – WF
