In Loving Memory
of
John Peterson
8/13/1943 to 6/10/2004

John Peterson was a special person. He worked very hard to bring awareness to COPD
and also organ donation. He will be sorely missed.

JOHN A. PETERSON

John A. Peterson, 60, of Falmouth, died Thursday, June 10th at home after a lengthy struggle with lung disease. The husband of Lilli Clabby, a Falmouth Hospital nurse, Mr. Peterson was born and raised in Boston’s Mission Hill. He loved Cape Cod, where he lived for two stints, first starting in 1980 and then in 2000 after a decade living and working in San Francisco. A veteran of the U.S. Army 2nd and 1st Calvary, Mr. Peterson was a sergeant on active duty with a tank recovery unit in Vietnam. He always worked hard, early on as a Boston newsboy and later as a certified automotive master mechanic in Massachusetts and California. Mr. Peterson’s biggest impact may have been with the many groups he devoted himself to, including Alcoholics Anonymous, which he said gave him a second shot at life in 1982. He ran the Falmouth Road Race twice but volunteered several more times. He was a director of the Second Wind Transplant Association and was the patient liaison to the lung transplant program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He often spoke publicly on behalf of the New England Organ Bank. The Internet widened Mr. Peterson’s large circle of friends. For years he edited an on-line newsletter for people with lung disease that he distributed nationally. His sign off was always the same: You lean on me and I’ll lean on you and we’ll be okay.Besides his wife, Mr. Peterson is survived by a daughter, Christine Nally of Wilmington; two sisters, Mary Melaragani of Gilbert, Ariz. and Margaret Donahue of Riverside, Calif.; two nieces; three nephews; a grandson; and a granddaughter.Visiting hours will be from 7-9 p.m. on Friday, June 11th in the Chapman, Cole & Gleason Funeral Home, 74 Algonquin Ave at Rt. 151, MASHPEE. A service will he held at the funeral home on Saturday at 11 a.m. Interment is private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to New England Organ Bank, One Gateway Center, Newton, MA.