Ray Petersen, one of our newest members, is featured this week as Lion of the Week. Ray was born in San Francisco, California, and reared there. His father, George Petersen, was born in Denmark and came to America when he was one year old. His mother was born in San Francisco but her mother was an immigrant from Ireland. His father owned a butcher market in San Francisco. He had one brother who is deceased.

Ray went to school at St. Ignatius College Prep in San Francisco, a Jesuit school. Upon graduation from high school he attended the University of San Francisco, studying Business Administration His wife, Priscilla, and he were high school sweethearts. Ray went into the butcher business being taught by his father. After several years as a butcher Ray decided to become a police officer in San Francisco. He attended the police academy and served as a police officer in San Francisco for nine years. In 1962 he moved his family to Marin County, North of San Francisco, to the town of Novato. After leaving the police department, Ray began a new career as an insurance agent. He then spent the next 38 years in that capacity.

Police officers are fraternal. As a consequence Ray began writing insurance programs for police officers all over the country. It started with police protective leagues in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Altogether there were 42 law enforcement departments all over the country he for whom he wrote programs. He also then began getting sponsorships in a number of major corporations including Texaco and Exxon. So in effect, Ray has had three distinct careers, butcher, cop and insurance agent.

Priscilla was also born and reared in San Francisco. They have four children and eight grandchildren. Their children are a daughter, Cynthia Madson, and three sons, Richard, Michael and Jeffrey. Their daughter Cynthia Madson now lives in Knoxville. She came to Knoxville to be part of the Home and Garden Television network start-up. She has just completed her 14th year with them. She is an account executive who handles the advertising. She and her husband have one son, Lawrence.

Jeffrey is married and has two daughters, Danielle and Libby. Jeffrey lives in Novato, California. He works for a major lumber company in Northern California.

Michael has three children. He and his wife also live in Novato. They have two girls, Courtney and Jordan and a son, Nicholas. Michael is an electrician in the Bay Area.

Richard is the proud father of two daughters, Charisse and Tia, who are now attending college in California. The girls spend some summer vacation each year with Ray and Priscilla.

Ray retired in the year 2000. He and Priscilla had come to Franklin and Brentwood the first time on a visit to Nashville. The trip was an anniversary surprise for Priscilla because she is an avid country music fan. She had started listening to country music, specially the Grand Ole Opry, when she was a little girl living in San Francisco. Priscilla and two friends sang professionally around San Francisco under the name, The Parodi Sisters.. They did pop music but Priscilla's love was country music. So when they got married Ray heard all the songs. It was a nice surprise for Priscilla to come to Nashville to celebrate that anniversary. They then started coming every couple of years and even spent one Christmas here. They fell in love with the area. The Petersen's had a country home at Lake Tahoe they were considering as a possible retirement home. After adding up the pros and cons they decided that it did not stack up. They decided to look to Tennessee, which was both beautiful and affordable.

Priscilla and her song writing partner started managing young artists in the bay area. She found it hard to do 2500 miles away from the center of country music. That was another reason for coming here was to be closer to the people in the business.

For hobbies and interests, Ray plays a little golf when he can. He has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, so as a result he is slightly limited now in what he can do. He also likes to fish, but says he has not fished since moving here but is looking forward to doing so in the near future.. He also likes to read. With encouragement from friends he has written memoirs from his police experiences. Those memoirs have been developed into a screen play. That is now floating around with hopes that it will catch on somewhere. A non-fiction book is also in the works.

Ray continues his membership in the Police Officers Association of San Francisco. He is involved with Nashville branch of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, since one of their granddaughters has Type 1 diabetes. He and his wife are members of the Holy Family Catholic Church on Crockett Road. He also joined Crime Stoppers in Williamson County . There he met Joey Davis, KarelGrace Dye and Susan Edenfield, who invited him to the Lions.

He likes the enthusiasm of the Lions Club and comes to the meetings as often as possible. Ray is very proud of his wonderful family. He is also happy about the longevity in his family. His father reached 100 years of age and was in his 99th year when the Petersen's moved to Tennessee A month later, his father then moved here as well .

We, in Lions, are glad that Ray and Priscilla have chosen Brentwood for their home. We are happy to have the opportunity to get to know them and hope that through our Lions Club experience we will get to know them better.

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