BROOKINGS — In 2009, Carol J. Peterson, provost and vice president emerita at South Dakota State University, went into retirement — sort of, but not really. She stayed on for a year to assist President David Chicoine, working on a policy manual, some accreditation work and other projects. She then stepped down in 2010. But at 87, she hasn’t ventured close to retirement.
“I’ve been busy on two fronts, particularly,” Peterson said of her post-retirement undertakings. “I continued work with the College of Nursing and continued work with SDSU, period. I served on the (SDSU) Foundation Trustee Board until this past year.
“And I’ve been on the Briggs Library Archives Committee for many years after retiring. And I’m probably their chief historian, because when they’re in a dilemma and need a little history, guess who they call to see if her memory is still there?” Laughing, she added, “It’s still there.”
Peterson came to SDSU as chief of nursing in 1977 and stayed through 1985. She then assumed the post of vice president; then later the duties of provost. During these and other years, for a total of 65 years, she remained a registered nurse. In January, she “let her license go. But until this December that we just passed, I was Carol J. Peterson, RN-Ph.D.”
She still serves on the advisory committee of the College of Nursing, which meets twice a year. Add to that the job of Secretary of the Board. to the South Dakota Nurses Foundation.
“I was the charter secretary,” she noted. “I was in the group that started the South Dakota Nurses Foundation, which is the fundraising arm of the nursing organization. I’m happy to say that we started with $1,500 and we now have $600,000; and we have given many scholarships for advanced training and nursing. I’m on that group’s development committee and I have been through several financial campaigns with them. I did their 20-year history a couple years ago. I’m their secretary and I do all their board minutes and their development committee minutes.”
Peterson does a lot of writing and serves on several women’s organization in the Brookings area. She’s also written several chapters of her autobiography.
She’s very much into antique collecting. While she’s not a professional appraiser, she has done much appraising on a private basis. “I know dishes, glassware and china very well.” She’s also knowledgeable about antique furniture. She admitted she doesn’t do as much with antiques as she used to. “I’ve slowed down. That’s OK, isn’t it?”
Much of the furniture in her home is Victorian: from 1830 to 1904 — “the Victorian. Antique Period.”
Carol Jean Willts was born in Sibley, Iowa, “a little town of 2,500” and of German heritage. She graduated from high school there in 1957 and went to Rochester, Minnesota, to Taylor School of Nursing, associated with the Mayo Clinic. The 1950s were a time when many RNs received their credentials via 2- to 3-year programs; their graduates were often referred to as “diploma (school) nurses.”
“I was a diploma nurse,” Peterson said. “I had three years of hospital nursing, wrote the state licensure and became a registered nurse with a diploma but no degree.
”I practiced nursing for several years and then started back to get an academic degree, because i wanted to be a leader in nursing.” Her back-to-school pursuit eventually earned her “a bachelor’s, master’s and ultimately a Ph.D.”
About that time the United States Public Health Service, “which was desperately trying to get nurses prepared to be academic leaders paid very generous money to people like me to go to school.” So to school she went: PHS scholarship dollars paid for Peterson’s “bachelor’s senior level; master’s level; and Ph.D. level. That took care of all my tuition, books, fees, and a monthly stipend. So I ended up with a Ph.D. at 30 years old with no debt. I was one of the first 500 nurses in the country to have a Ph.D. (or it could be an Ed.D.)”
Along the way, she married Charles Richard Peterson in December 1964.
Brookings, SDSU, Daktronics
After Peterson earned her doctorate, she was active in nursing in the Minneapolis area. She had been called to do some consultant work in South Dakota. When SDSU’s dean of nursing position opened in 1977, someone who had attended one of her workshops called her and suggested she apply for the job. She wasn’t interested.
“I’m not leaving the Twin Cities,” was her reaction. “My husband is with Honeywell and has been for a career. I’m not going anyplace.”
However, the committee chair called and told her she could apply over the phone. Intrigued by the possibility that she might someday seek such a position, Peterson “came out and applied for the deanship.”
“I was absolutely turned on by what was here at SDSU,” she recalled. “They were crying for a leader to start a master’s program; they were crying for a leader to start an upward mobility program for nurses who didn’t have degrees. I was welcomed with open arms: when can you come?”
She and her husband, a World War II Navy veteran, came to Brookings together. He was able to continue with his own career, gaining a position at Daktronics, from which he later retired. The Petersons had no children; they had their careers and mutually supported each other.
She cared for husband for three to four years when he was ill. He died Dec. 18, 2013. “I was still active professionally, still going in. I had an emerita office in West Hall. I did history work. I wrote quite an extensive history for SDSU that they’re putting online right now.
“I could have never completely folded up and retired. … My talent is my brainpower, intelligence, speaking power and planning power.”
Perhaps what Carol Peterson is all about can be best seen in her own words, such as these sent to “Dear Friends, Relatives, Colleagues,” at Christmas 2025: “Many reasons to be thankful; love and safekeeping from God; no return of breast cancer; still live alone in my house and get out regularly; wonderful friends, relatives, and community; no COVID-19 infection, flu or pneumonia; vaccinated and boosted.
“Every day I try to do something useful, even if for a short time; attend a service group, go to a professional meeting, read, write, color, cook a little, volunteer, and /or give away some money.
“Enjoy SDSU activities. No longer have emerita office on campus. Had an office at SDSU for 45 years, much history in my campus went to Briggs Library archives. College of Nursing awarded me their first Living Legacy Award in October 2024. … SDSU is doing very well. Many campus improvements. Programs in good standing. Highly successful Foundation campaign achieved over $605 million.”
— Contact John Kubal at [email protected].
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