Dale E. Peterson

Dale E. Peterson passed away peacefully before sunrise on February 5, 2026, at Kimball Farms Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Lenox, MA with his wife of 56 years, Louise, by his side. Dale was a man of great character who left a strong impression on everyone he met.

Dale was born in 1948 in New Westminster, British Columbia in Canada and moved with his family to Seattle as a child. Dale and Louise met as undergraduates at Washington State University in Pullman, Washington and married in 1970. Dale graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science in 1973, after which Dale and Louise moved to Himeji, Japan for three years to work for the YMCA, where they immersed themselves in Japanese culture. They brought back art and stories that remained fixtures in their home and dinner conversation for decades to come.

Dale began his career in architecture in New York City in 1983 after receiving a Master’s Degree in Architecture from Columbia University. He was a New York State Registered Architect from 1986-2021, during which time he was employed by firms including Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), Gensler, Mancini Duffy, and Hines. At Hines he worked on a project for Goldman Sachs in Jersey City. On September 11th, 2001, Dale watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center. In the wake of the 9/11 tragedy, city government realized the inadequacies of their emergency call system, which led to a plan to rethink infrastructure including the construction of a new emergency management building in the Bronx. Dale led the entire process from design through construction of PSAC II, the City of New York’s new 911 emergency call center as Project Executive for the New York City Department of Design and Construction.

It was to their Upper West Side apartment that Dale and Louise brought home their daughter Alice, followed five years later by son Stuart. As young parents in 1986, they bought a house in Copake Falls, NY, which became their full-time residence in 2015 following decades of loving and careful renovations designed by Dale and executed by trusted local craftspeople.

Dale lent his expertise to the Town of Copake and Columbia County, volunteering on the Copake Zoning Board of Appeals, Historic Preservation Committee, and on affordable housing. He loved living in a place that took care to preserve the history of human impact on the natural world and walked for miles every day through the woods of Taconic State Park and on the Harlem Valley Rail Trail.

He was a man of great taste and was very loved by his family and friends. He loved art and design and was particularly good at offering fine-tuned criticism (whether requested or not). Dale cared deeply about racial equality and social justice and took care to express his values eloquently and often. He had a lifelong love of American folk and protest music.

Dale Peterson was loved fiercely by his wife, children, grandchildren, and friends. Dale passed on his taste in music and design, his generosity, work ethic, and the ability to precisely and perfectly complete any task to his children, Alice and Stuart. He also leaves behind his wife, Louise, and sister, Nancy, of Tiburon, California. Alice’s husband Mark, and Stuart’s partner Claire, are better having known him and been welcomed into the Peterson family. His grandchildren Maeve and Philip were his favorite people. He will be greatly missed.

A memorial service will be held on March 7th at 1:00pm at Grace Episcopal Church located at Berkshire South Community Center, 15 Crissey Road, Great Barrington, MA. Arrangements have been entrusted to Peck & Peck Funeral Homes, of Copake. If you wish to honor Dale, you may make a donation to the Harlem Valley Rail Trail Association or Friends of Taconic State Park.