Ford Peters

Ford Gordon Peters, Jr.

25 August 1934 – 2 May 2019

Ford Gordon Peters, Jr., Gordon to family and friends, passed peacefully and at rest in his home Thursday 2 May 2019.

Born in Chattanooga, TN he grew up between Chattanooga and Miami, Florida with his parents and two younger sisters. Graduated from Central High School in Chattanooga and he went on to study engineering at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Gordon spent his adult life and career in the television broadcast arena helping build the first TV station in Knoxville while at the University. He then worked at a station in Chattanooga where he and his first wife (Elise Bate Peters, deceased) began a family that would come to have six children.

He moved on to a job w/Teleprompter Corporation which held a contract with Red Stone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. He was a remote crew chief doing television shoots of the early Mercury and Gemini launches. From there his career took him into broadcast equipment sales and a job with Sarkes Tarzian and the move to Texas in 1965 where the family settled in Arlington. He later worked for Vital Industries in Gainesville, Florida and he covered the sales territory primarily of the mid-west from west of the Mississippi to the Rockies from the Gulf coast to the Canadian Border.

Gordon and his wife Jean met in a television station in Denver in 1979 when Gordon sold a master control video switcher and Jean was one of the technical directors. They were married in 1982. Upon the passing of his first wife, the two youngest children grew-up with Gordon and Jean. After they both graduated high school Gordon and Jean decided they wanted to be near the water when they would eventually retire and moved to Port Aransas full-time in 1996. They owned and operated their own broadcast equipment sales company for over 30 years representing about 10 major manufacturers.

Gordon was a private pilot with a commercial, instrument-rated license having learned to fly in 1953. An avid aviation enthusiast he put the keys in the hanger when he felt he was no longer able to perform all the functions of piloting safely. He also loved to fish and enjoyed many hours on their boat the Freed’em before finding that a fall with knee replacements was not something he wanted to endure. A member of the Port Aransas Boatmen Association for many years he strongly supported the conservation of natural resources.

Gordon is survived by his wife of 37 years, Jean (Neff) Peters; his sister Barbara (Peters) Perry of Bradenton, Florida; his six children Karen (Peters) Bloom, Round Rock, TX; Jeffery Peters, North Hills, CA; Lauren Peters, Austin, TX; Charles Peters, San Diego, CA; Valerie (Peters) Bandy, Grosse Point, MI, and Christopher Peters, Valley Village, CA..; 2 daughters-in-law, Jenn and Julianne; 1 son-in-law, Joe Bandy and seven grandchildren and his mother-in-law, Fran Neff, Edgewater, CO. He was preceded in death by his mother Nancy Ava Riddle Peters; father, Ford Gordon Peters and his sister Anne Nancy Peters and his son-in-law Larry Bloom.

A celebration of life will be planned later in the month. In lieu of flowers etc., Gordon asked that donations be made to the Port Aransas Boatmen Association, the Alzheimer’s Foundation, in memory of loved ones, or the Salvation Army.

Arrangements entrusted to:

Charlie Marshall Funeral Homes and Crematory, Inc.

2003 W. Wheeler

Aransas Pass, Texas

361-758-3221