Leon S. Peters Legacy · Peters, Pete interview

Title

Peters, Pete interview

Description

He talks about how his father came to America and Americanized his name from Bedrosian to Peters, later came to Fresno and got married. He discusses how his father rented a farm in Lone Star and grew grapes for raisins and how he was the youngest child of five. He talks about his mother passing away when he was eight years old and being raised mostly by his father and sister, Melba. He discusses how Leon saved enough money to buy Valley Foundry and going to work for him. He talks about how the business evolved from manufacturing pumps to winery tanks and eventually selling the business to Ametek. He also discusses serving in the army during World War II in Burma and India. He talks about how he and Leon became involved in the community, especially with Community Hospital and Rotary and their ethics in regards to giving back to the community.

Creator

Peters, Pete

Mehas, Dr. Peter G.; Richter, Bud

Relation

Leon S. Peters Legacy Collection

Coverage

Fresno, California

Date

4/24/2009

Format

Microsoft word 2003 document, 21 pages

Identifier

SCMS_lspl_00033

extracted text

[Silence]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay. Pete Peters, brother of Leon S. Peters, legends in our
community, philanthropists, business people, and we are so honored to do this
interview for the archives of the Leon S. Peters family papers that will be
generously kept at California State University, Fresno. Pete, so many of us who have
been privileged to know you and your brother and your family, know the incredible
stories about the very humble beginnings that you came from.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, let's start off with family because family was so
important to the Peters family. And the name never was Peters. So, let's start by
going back to Armenia where the brothers, thanks to I guess some missionaries in San
Francisco->>Pete Peters: Right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: --encouraged the family to get out of Armenia before the
genocide, as they were killing millions of--thousands of Armenians in the--in
Armenia. And so your brothers took the advice apparently of these San Francisco
Armenian missionaries to come. So, let's start with a story. Tell me about how they
came, where they landed, and how they got started.
>>Pete Peters: They arrived at Ellis Island in 1886--'96, I'm sorry. And so from
there on, they all dreamt that someday we're gonna go to United States because their
family had already left and Dad was about the last one, him and my nephew, Ed
Peters. And, of course, everyone--when he arrived in Fresno, everyone called him
Pete. So I was named after him and that. So, he's real name was Edward Peters. So,
they came to United States to Ellis Island, and they were never--he never knew the
name had been changed to Peters, my father. The brother had signed ahead of time for
his own son and my father, and so they changed it to Peters, and they kept paging
Peters. My dad didn't know that they had been called that. At that time, they knew
about four words of English. And so, they just stayed with the Bedrosian name, which
was Bedrosian.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Bedros.
>>Pete Peters: Bedros. And so, when they finally--someone from New York, an Armenian
fellow, came there and said that we know the Peters family, and your name has been
changed. And of course, Dad was angry about--"Why did they change my name without
telling me about it,” you know, and thing. But that was all explained to him. And at
that time, they said that with the name Bedrosian, you'll never get a job in United
States.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Discrimination, heavily->>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Against the Armenians, and even in Fresno. We'll talk about
that later on too.
>>Pete Peters: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, there was great discrimination against the Armenians here.

>> Peter Peters: Exactly, you know. And so they went ahead and they're able to
hurdle that too. And then they came to Fresno. Because the brother was here already,
and that brother, his name is John Peters. They'd already changed it, you know. And
his son was George Peters who had the Globe Drug Company. And so that's where
they've met, and they did a lot of talking and that. And so, Dad got married, and I
was the last.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And your father married->>Pete Peters: A Bagdasarian.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Bagdasarian.
>>Pete Peters: That's right, and he was a minister.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He was a minister, okay.
>>Pete Peters: That's right. And so, he lived there, and he stayed here, and then he
went into the farming business, and that was very difficult at that time. They only
spoke about 10 words of English, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Pete Peters: And at that time they didn't have areas where you can go to school
and learn English, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Right.
>>Pete Peters: And no one had time to do it in the first place. They had to work,
you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Now the farm--now, was the farm in Fowler or was it in Fresno?
>>Pete Peters: My father rented a farm in Lone Star.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Lone Star.
>>Pete Peters: And then from there on, he was looking for a farm. And the ironic
part, there was a fire at the ranch, and so I drove out there. And it was the house
that my dad built and that he was--he had it built. And then I was born in that
house 92 years ago.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 92 years ago.
>>Pete Peters: 92 years ago. This May will be 92 years. And so, what I was telling
the firemen, you know. He says, my god, I knew that house was old, but->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That was burned down, the one that you were born at, that you
were born.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How come so many of the Armenians were involved, you know, we
owe, to a great extent, the raisin industry and other crops.
>>Pete Peters: Yes.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Because of the Armenian immigrants coming to this area. Why
did they gravitate towards that area?
>>Pete Peters: The only reason why I could see is that that was an area--the raisin
industry they knew about. And they didn't dare to go into anything without knowing
something about it. So, all the farming that these people did, they did raise
raisins, and they knew how to process it and all that. So, many of the Armenians who
had that knowledge went into the raisin--raisin industry.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: And which the majority of them, there, knew--they had worked with the
farm, they purchased farms, and from that time on, that's how come there’s so many
of them.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That went in. Now, we'll talk about the connection between
agriculture in Valley Foundry a little bit later on.
>>Pete Peters: Okay.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But let's go back to the family now. So, your father married a
Bagdasarian.
>>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Your mom. And how many children were there? And where were you
in the birthing order of the children?
>>Pete Peters: I was the last one. And when I was 8--5 years old when mom passed
away.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Five years old.
>>Pete Peters: And she was 42.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: She passed away at 42.
>>Pete Peters: And we've always said that this modern day, if--no one knew what she
passed away from, that thing. And there was all kinds of stories, you know. No one
knew exactly whether it was--it wasn't TB or anything like that, but it was, I think
the--latest thing was that female problems, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure, certainly.
>>Pete Peters: And that was a killer too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Right.
>>Pete Peters: And but I had--Leon was the oldest and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Now, he was 17 when you were 5.
>>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay, so he was your big brother.
>>Pete Peters: That's right.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He was->>Pete Peters: Big brother->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: --of the family.
>>Pete Peters: And so I had another brother named Karnig.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Karnig.
>>Pete Peters: He was two years younger than Leon.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: And they--all of them went to Fowler High School. Then in between, I
had a sister, Melba.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Alright.
>>Pete Peters: And then another brother by the name of Aram.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Aram, my friend Aram.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah, yeah. And he was two years older than me and two years and one
day. And so, we--in the family, Dad got, all one together and this is it. This is-and he wasn’t asked or anything, and this is it, we're going to have a hundred acres
of land, and we're going to make the best of it, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, your father and your brother and your sister sort of
raised you->>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You had no mother.
>>Pete Peters: No, no mother.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he didn't remarry?
>>Pete Peters: No.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so the family, the brothers and sister, your father made a
go of it.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly. And my sister and all of us understood that Dad was not
going to remarry.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: And so there was a tremendous amount of matchmaking going on.
[Laughter]
>>Pete Peters: And you know how that is.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh, of course.

>>Pete Peters: Yeah. But he told my mother on her deathbed that there's only one
person, and that's you, and I'm not going to remarry. And she insisted on him
getting remarried again, and to raise the family, to have a mother, and all this and
that. And he says I appreciate that, but I can't do that to bring in another woman
in my house, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The old, old, old values->>Pete Peters: Exactly, you hit it right there, Pete.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The old values.
>>Pete Peters: You know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How old was your father when he passed away then?
>>Pete Peters: He was 74.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 74.
>>Pete Peters: He died of heart attack, you know. And so it was--Leon was 78.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: When Leon passed away.
>>Pete Peters: Passed away, right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Tell me about growing up with Leon because, you know, big
brothers have a tendency--they are benefit in order to teach, but they also want to
make sure that particularly with no mother->>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: --that they'd take on a role not only of big brother but also
mother and protector and all of it. So, tell us what it was like growing up with
Leon.
>>Pete Peters: I think it was just wonderful because we hunted together, we went
quail hunting, and I never forget one day sitting on the ditch bank there, resting,
and he said that someday--he was working at Valley Foundry. He says someday I'm
gonna buy that. And to hear him so determined, you know, and I thought, and he drove
a tractor, he did outside work and everything else in order to accumulate money so
he could purchase it. And so, I know that who owned Valley Foundry was Mr. Keithly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He bought it--Keithly bought it from Hunt in the industry.
>>Pete Peters: That's right, exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He bought it from Hunt. And--but let's go back a little bit
when how Leon got highly involved. Now the farming background, the Valley Foundry
apparently got involved with a lot of agricultural equipment particularly the
horizontal centrifugal pump.
>>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The gasoline pump.

>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then later on I guess when the horizontal pump, the water
table changed, they went to a vertical pump->>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And Valley Foundry changed with that and the engines.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then later on, with the deep turbine pumps. So, Valley
Foundry was right there on the cutting edge.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Each time the technology, they were right there to meet it.
And I guess Leon got hired. And tell us what--how he got hired because of his
knowledge.
>>Pete Peters: We--he was negotiating a pump->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: A gasoline engine one cylinder.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: One cylinder.
>>Pete Peters: And it was 25 horsepower, one of the biggest ones in that area, you
know. And so, him and I, we dug the trench where the pit and all that. And it was so
big that we had to--he dug a trench from one well to the other well, which was about
25 feet away. And how he lined that up and was able to hit that, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Engineering of it.
>>Pete Peters: Engineering of it. And I admire all that because it was just--you
could be off 6 inches and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Missed.
>>Pete Peters: And miss it, you know. And so he just went ahead and did that. And
with little background that I had, I like that kind of things, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Pete Peters: And so him and I, we more or less teamed up from when we were number
one, you know. And so we went ahead and created jobs and whatnot, you know, and
started the--he sold pumps to the neighborhood and then got further and further, you
know. And during the summer, he hired me to help him drill the standpipe where we
put a probe in there to take the flow of the water that came out, you know. In that
way, there, the growers had something that told them exactly how the well was, how
much water it did deliver, and whatnot, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So water, the thing that I think a lot of our young people-people need to know, we're going through a water crisis right now, and how critical
water is for agriculture and how the technology--I couldn't believe that at one time
the aquifer of the water was only, in some spots only 4-5 feet below the ground.

>>Pete Peters: That's right, that's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And as the aquifer began to dry up, then they needed to go
deeper to get the water in Valley Foundry. And that technology was right there at
the cutting edge.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I understand Leon only made 100 dollars when he got hired as a
salesman for Valley Foundry.
>>Pete Peters: That's about it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: A hundred dollars a month plus his car.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah. [Laughter]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he had to support all of you.
>>Pete Peters: Oh yes, definitely, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Pete Peters: And when he was negotiating the pump that we bought at the ranch,
which was a big pump at 25 horsepower, and it's pumped out of two wells and whatnot,
and when we got it in, and there was many--the owner of Valley Foundry, the manager
said, "Now, I'm gonna ask you a question. If you were on this side of the table,
would you tried as hard to make this deal?" He says, "Absolutely." There's only one
master, and whoever that I work for, that's who he's going to be. And so they kept
asking him, "Well, during the summer can you come and go to work here during the
summer?" And he was, during the summer, working for his uncle Dick Bagdasarian who
was in a shipping business. So, we all got a summer job, and I was making boxes.
And, in fact, William Saroyan also made boxes there too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Our great writer William Saroyan had been working making
boxes?
>>Pete Peters: That's right, that's right. And so we--but from that time on that I
knew that Leon and I were very close. And so, he always kept me informed about
Valley Foundry and whatnot. And who had it, at that time, was Mr. and Mrs. Sterling.
And they had this Valley Foundry as an investment. And they're from state of
Washington where they had apples and they raise there. And so, we went ahead and he
purchased it. And the way it was that his back wages was the down payment.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, his back wages. Now, did he purchase it from the
Sterlings?
>>Pete Peters: From the Sterlings, right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Apparently, he didn't--the Sterlings had somebody for a while
who operated it->>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And they were really upset 'cause the guy who operated it
mixed the prices of the books and all of that--

>>Pete Peters: He did everything.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He did everything. And so there was a big sort of scandal
about it.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so he came back, I guess, from Washington and that
ultimately led to Leon purchasing it.
>>Pete Peters: Yes. And he even moved to->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Excuse me. Let's take a little break, so that I can give you
some water.
>>Pete Peters: Okay.
>>: This is going--okay. This is going well. I hope you feel comfortable with this.
This is perfect, yeah. This is good.
>>Pete Peters: I do if I talk too much, you->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Oh no, to the contrary, I want you to, you know. Sometimes we
interview people and it takes me like pulling teeth. That's wonderful 'cause these
stories are great. These are really good. I'll put this over and then you tell me
where to stop and have it.
>>Pete Peters: Very good, thank you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, he lived in Washington. And then how did Leon ultimately
purchase it?
>>Pete Peters: He came to Fresno quite a bit.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: Only to check the books.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And there were stockholders, right, who bought into the Valley
Foundry?
>>Pete Peters: No, no.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: No stockholders. He owned it just himself, okay.
>>Pete Peters: Leon wanted it by himself, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay, alright.
>>Pete Peters: And so he purchased it, and the whole lock and stock and barrel. If I
recall, at that time, was 56,000 dollars, the building and everything, you know. And
so, in fact, Bud Richter was right behind us with Pepsi-Cola.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Pepsi-Cola, yeah, the bottling company.
>>Pete Peters: That's right.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Elmer and young Bud Richter.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly, exactly. And so we have--so when he purchased it, and then
for sure, and I have to tell you this, he said now is the time you come to work with
Valley Foundry. So, I was working at Goble Disc Works. I'm starting there at 4:30 in
the afternoon, and working 'til midnight.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What were you doing there?
>>Pete Peters: Lathe, lathe.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Lathe, okay.
>>Pete Peters: Machining the spools on the--So we--so I went there and--so the first
day they put me in the foundry, shoveling sand. So, one day, we're hunting and I go,
“Leon,” I said, "You know, I know how to shovel sand."
[Laughter]
>>Pete Peters: He said, yeah, but I want us to--I told you I'm going to start you at
the bottom and that thing.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So that's how you started, shoveling sands.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah. Shoveling sand at Valley Foundry, and we poured a lot of metal.
And the bronze and the pump bolts and whatnot, you know. And so that was fine. And
then he had the Valley Foundry, and it was such--and he knew very well that anytime
if he couldn't pay my wages, that's fine too, you know, we managed on that.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How was he as a boss?
>>Pete Peters: Very good, very good. He made a statement and you lived up to it.
Because in my days, I felt that the knowledge that he had from day one after Mom
passed away, that I have to capture some of that knowledge. And that was--that's why
he wanted me to go into the machine shop business, to welding or anything that came
along, you know. And then, of course, the war came along, and I went into the
service, and--but it was that->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Did you go to the military--for how long were you in the->>Pete Peters: I was in five years.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Five years.
>>Pete Peters: I ended up in India and Burma.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Burma. In the army?
>>Pete Peters: Yeah in the army, uh huh. And I was waiting to get accepted for the
cadets.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: And--but I became 26 years old, and they said you're too old. We
don't need you. There were so many young people. And so, so then I requested oversea
duty. And so, from there on, I went overseas to India and Burma and that area there.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: During the war years, during the wars years, it's amazing once
again, Valley Foundry was asked--in fact, they got awards by U.S. War Department for
their producing not only of torpedo tubes->>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But also bells for the ships.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Many, many parts.
>>Pete Peters: Bells, we were making and they--they had to have a certain tone. And
they--the inspector would come and hit them, you know. You couldn't have any flaws
in your bronze as you cast it. We cast it in our own foundry. And then we machined
them and we set up. I wasn't there, but when I'd come back, you know, they’d explain
everything to me.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, it sounded like in the early years that Leon relied upon
you for a lot of the technical knowledge at the shop to actually implement it. Leon
had the ideas and the vision->>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Then he would turn to you to help implement it.
>>Pete Peters: And that's one thing he wanted me to go into the--from the foundry he
wanted me to cast the pumps and whatnot, bolts and everything. And then also, when I
got out of the service, he put me in the sales. He said, I'm tired of calling on the
customer, you gonna call on them from now on. And so, it worked out just--the whole
thing is following his footstep, and I just loved that. It’s just--and he was, I
realized from day one at the age of 5 that he was the boss. And there's no--you
didn't have to argue that point. It was settled. It was embedded in concrete. And
it's->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Everybody knew it.
>>Pete Peters: Everyone knew it, and he was a fair boss, very good. And one thing is
that you always told him the truth, because for years and years ago, people—-I’ve
heard him tell that there is no liar who could think of the lies he said three days
ago, because he's concentrating more on what he did say to redo it. And I know a lot
of times, he would call me in and there'd be someone that's--the salesperson. And I
knew very well that he was egging this fellow on. And the quickest thing was that he
said, the fellow would say, he said, "What did I tell you before?" And he said,
"Well, gosh, if you can't remember what you told me, was it the truth you told me?"
And so, he had him pretty well.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, your values, that's is why, I think, Peters family and
Leon S. Peters Award is more than just being a successful businessman, which he was
and she were, more than philanthropy which you've given to the community, but those
values of honesty, of loyalty, of your reputation. My grandfather used to say the
most valuable thing you have is your name->>Pete Peters: Exactly. He told me that many, many times. Dad told me that many,
many times, you know. He said they could take everything away from you, but not your
reputation and name. And I'm a firm believer of that, you know, and--

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, as we look at, and we're going to leave the Valley
Foundry, but let's start it off in terms of with producing valuable agricultural
whether it was pumped one-horse engines later on as they produce. But then the farm
implements, I guess there were grinders too at one time, they need a->>Pete Peters: For grape crushers.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: A grape crusher, yeah.
>>Pete Peters: Right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah, as they went through, and then with the war efforts. And
then a part that you had an important--an important part that really a lot of people
saved one of your legacies and Leon's legacies in Valley Foundry was the storing,
the storage tanks.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That is known throughout the world as to the innovation. And
you play such a key part along obviously with Leon as it went through. So, let's
talk about that. Before, all the great storage was done in wood, right?
>>Pete Peters: Wood. And then they went to concrete.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And then they went to concrete. So, how did--tell us that
story.
>>Pete Peters: The biggest tank in concrete they're able to make was 65,000 gallons.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: 65,000 gallons.
>>Pete Peters: And as you could imagine how many 65,000-gallon tanks that Gallo had
to have to keep them. So, then they went to steel tanks, and steel tanks with epoxy
coating, which the maintenance was very high on it. So, I thought of this idea, and
with Perelli-Minetti and I made a sketch of it. And so he says, "I think you’ve got
a winner there." And so he said, "You start building them and I'll take seven of
them, and there are 180,000-gallon tanks. They're the hugest->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: All made out of?
>>Pete Peters: Stainless steel.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Stainless steel.
>>Pete Peters: And so at that time, there was an engineer here in Fresno by the name
of Wayne Taul and he did all my engineering, and he took a liking to me, and so I
worked with him on it. And so, I explained it to him on what I had in mind and the
size of the tank, and we could go so many feet high and whatnot. But I say there's
always going to be a bigger tank because the wine industry is growing, and I got
back from the service, and I could see that there are just--they're tired of the
concrete tanks, and they had to go to something different, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: How did you convince--how did you convince Leon because
there's risk involved.
>>Pete Peters: Oh, you bet, you bet, you bet.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: That was a big, big risk to do that 'cause it was on the
cutting edge. How did you convince him to get into that?
>>Pete Peters: I told him, "What we’ll do, Leon, I'm not sure of this," and he liked
that, that he->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Honesty.
>>Pete Peters: Honesty. Another thing is--so I explained it to him that this is a
risk, but I know a winery, Liberty Winery in Lodi area. They are willing to take
65,000-gallon tank, not 125,000 like Perelli-Minetti wants. And so--and so on that,
and made them in panels. And there I found out a good friend of mine was in American
Transport Company, Glenn Prickett. And so I worked with him and we made these
sheets, they were 20 feet wide, but you had a contour to them. And in order to keep
that down, you put angle irons on the outside.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: On the outside.
>>Pete Peters: And that kept the--and that was stainless steel too. So, as you put
them on a jig, a plywood jig, then you, you’d drape by itself, and then you stiffen
that with the angle iron. And I remember the size, it was 2 by 2 by 3/16, I think.
And that was included in the engineering on the thickness of it. So, you could drop
it one gauge and use the angle iron. So then you had a very--it's just like a house
with the foundation. You had a nice strong thing. So, we built these and then we got
up to 750,000 gallons. And so, we were building these tanks, and that became what-actually that's why Ametek wanted to buy Valley Foundry is because there was the
wine industry was booming, and so we went ahead and designed that for the wine
industry. And we got, to this day, a fellow that used to work for me, Jim Mosqueda,
he started his own business when Valley Foundry closed. And we didn't take a patent
on it. Lee said we'll be fighting in court most of the time. And so, we'll just go
ahead and do it for the wine industry.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, even though you invented it, even though you've designed
it, you didn't take a patent on it, so you just let it go on->>Pete Peters: Exactly. And because he said, one way or another, the law is that if
they changed it a little bit, and I know that he bought a brush shredder and chopped
the vine brush, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The shredder.
>>Pete Peters: And so, but that was thrown in court, the fellow who worked at Valley
Foundry, he went ahead and start copying it and made it exactly the same thing. And
what he did was it had a floating concave on it, and he--they weld it just a small
weld. So, the first stump they got into it, it brake the weld, you know. So, the
fellows, they didn't have time to weld it, that's all, you know. And so, it just
becomes that you're tremendously in lawsuits over, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So Leon said->>Pete Peters: No.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We're going to move on.
>>Pete Peters: We're going to move on, and we'll just go ahead and manufacture you
know. And so--and he supported me very, very good, you know.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, you said you got this idea. He backed you->>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: As we went--as we went into them.
>>Pete Peters: Thank you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You're welcome. Well, we're going leave Valley Foundry in a
second here. But when did Valley Foundry close, and basically, why was the decision
made to sell it?
>>Pete Peters: We merged with Ametek.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: And it got so that I knew that his health was alright, you know. And
but at the same time, he felt that he better get a company behind it that has the
financial end of it, and because previous to that, I was only in the manufacturing
end of it, design and whatnot, which I loved, you know. And he was more the
financial man, the thing. And so one couldn't do without the other, you know, and
it's->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Great relationship.
>>Pete Peters: Yes, it was, it worked out very, very good, and we got along very,
very good, you know. And so, we went ahead and worked on that basis. And as time
goes on, we made bigger tanks. We, the first very common was 320,000. And I knew
very well that someday a winery is going to come and say, "Now, why can't you double
that and make it 750,000--780,000, you know." And I had on the board when we sold, I
was thinking about quitting Valley Foundry was to make a million-gallon tank. I
wanted a million-gallon tank, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, do you think that probably out of the many, many things
that Valley Foundry did, that probably the thing that got ultimately national and
international recognition were those->>Pete Peters:

Tanks.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Wine storage tanks.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Stainless steel wine tanks.
>>Pete Peters: I sold some even to an oil company down in Texas, but--and I never
knew that the wind was so such a factor there. And so, we made them shallow, 16 feet
high and here we went 42 feet, 43 feet, you know. And then as time went on, we
developed a tank that we shipped them--we got a house permit, house-moving permit,
and those were 40 feet long, and at that time, 20 feet—-and we stacked them all up
on them to get the tonnage. The truck went out, and you couldn't get close to San
Francisco, but Lodi area was a wine country.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And that's worth it.
>>Pete Peters: And so, we shipped lot of them in there, you know.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, the jobs that Valley Foundry created, the impact of the
economy of the Central Valley economy was so closely tied into a lot of the
innovations of Valley Foundry. We've talked about a little bit about the family. And
how you got here. We talked a little bit about Valley Foundry. Let's talk about what
you have kept alive with Leon starting this idea of giving to the community. Because
everywhere you look, you look at the university, you look at the Bulldog Stadium->>Pete Peters:

Uh hmm.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: --you know, clearly the names have--you go through, you know,
Leon Peters, Pete Peters, the Richter family, Bud Richter family, you look at the
Smittcamps, these are pillars of our community->>Pete Peters: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And what--what gave you and Leon this idea of philanthropy of
not just one thing to get the name because that never entered->>Pete Peters: No, no.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You, neither you or Leon. What was that value that said we're
going to give to the community.
>>Pete Peters: Okay. The--I believe that when I got out of the service in 1946, and
the first thing he told me, after we went to the office, I arrived at this house at
3 o'clock in the morning.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Three in the morning.
>>Pete Peters: Three in the morning. And of course, I was just anxious to see him
and Alice too. So in the morning after he had breakfast, went down to his office on
H Street. And he said that--I was sitting down in front of his desk, and he said,
"Pete, this community has been very good to us, and I want you to know one thing,
you can't take everything out of a community without putting something back in." And
my mind was what is my position now, what do you want me to do. And he always wrote
to me and said, "You'll be the same thing, you're going to carry on, and I'm going
to drop out, you know." And so when--when I say, "Yeah, Lee." And he said, "Did you
hear what I said?" He raised his voice up about two points. And when he did that, I
was about ready to kick my heels and throw him and salute.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Military, yeah.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yes, sergeant.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah. And so, I told him, and I said, later on we hadn’t had lunch
about a week 10 days later. And I told him and I said, "You know, I was going to
click my heels and throw you a salute, you know." He said, "Good thing you spared
that one." [Laughter] But we got along very, very good. And to me, at that time,
when he had mentioned, "The community has been very good to us and you can't take
everything out of a community." And the first thing went to my mind that people have
done that, that they forget the community being so good to them, and the community
is good, you know. And so I felt that this is something good that I want to back up,
you know. And as time went on, that's exactly what I was doing too, is to--that it
was a must. It was good enough for Lee, it's good enough for me too, you know.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: I look at many of the areas, and you might be able to share
some, but I like at least great love for Fresno State, California State University,
Fresno. I mean the Peters signature is all over that. I look at Community Hospital.
>>Pete Peters: That's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: In fact I constantly am running into former students of mine
who said, "My life was saved because of Leon S. Peters and the Peters' contribution
to the Community Hospital.” So, his love of Community Hospital, his love of Fresno
State, his love of the Rotary Club.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He was very active in the Rotary Club, downtown Fresno Rotary
Club and very active in the Masonic Lodge, all those areas. How did he sort of go
about, and I'm sure there's many, many other areas that he has been involved in but
those are the ones that I can think of. How did he get involved with those?
>>Pete Peters: Well, there was a need there. And the need at the community hospital,
let's just take that one. The--even and I felt the same thing that imagine a mother
that's pregnant, maybe it was because I lost my mother when I was 5 years old. And I
think that had a lot of influence on our decision just to see what we could do. I
know she didn't pass away on childbirth or anything like that, but at the same time,
you have to think about the future. There are people. So that's one of reason why I
definitely picked out the Clovis Community Hospital and supported that and made it
to--for pregnant women to go there and then not wait until the deathbed is there,
and then to say, "Well, I helped later on, you know." But, because I could still
remember my mother at the community hospital, you know. At that time it was called
The Burnett.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Burnett Sanitarium.
>>Pete Peters: Sanitarium.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: We also, of course, plugged for the Fresno Athletic Hall of
Fame, which we are so, you kindly every year if it wasn't for you and the Shehadeys,
the Fresno Athletic Hall of Fame wouldn't be [inaudible].
>>Pete Peters: That's a must.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so we're very, very grateful for that. And of course, we
have one of--Bud Richter's in our hall of fame.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly, exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Have him here today. Let's talk a little bit about the values
and I mentioned that earlier, and I don't want to->>Pete Peters: Sure, sure.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But it seems to me that your father and your family was taught
honesty, was taught in terms of community, community service, was taught in terms of
your word is your bond.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And these are the things in which the founders of the Leon S.
Peters Award, and they were 5 or 6, 4 or 5 gentlemen that were involved with the
formation, and that's the highest award that the Fresno Chamber of Commerce can give
any citizen in the Central Valley. And to be a recipient of that award is most
prestigious. But all those values that you learned, you learned from your family and
you carry it on from Leon and the rest of the family.
>>Pete Peters: The way I feel, Peter, is that you cannot do this one spring day that
you get up and say, "That's what I'm gonna do." You have to--it was embedded in me
with Lee, and Lee had done it before, and he'd always call me up into his office,
and this is what we're going to do. And it's always "we". And so, I just felt that
that was so important to me that I carry on this all through my life. And the good
Lord has given me a good long life, you know, to be 92 years old. I say to myself
that Lee, you were--you were gypped 'cause you don't talk to the good Lord like
that, you know that, Peter.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Of course, of course.
>>Pete Peters: And we just--we pray to God that how thankful we are, you know. And
we were one of the lucky ones that came along, and we're able to do things like
that. In fact I could tell you one other thing is that during the time that he was
in the hospital, at the Community Hospital and I’d go see him every morning. And
there were days that I would take a trip to go not to Europe, but I've been there to
one day and one day, Sunday, and then came on back, you know. Because he was in the
hospital and the thing. But the whole thing is that you adjust your life and the
strength that's given to you by the good Lord that you have this obligation to do.
In 1946 when he told you that you can't take everything out of a community without
putting something back in, you better get busy and do it, you know. And I told him
at that time that the thing, I said, "I don't need anything. Let's give it all to
the community, and the--you've got a good start, we're going to continue on."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Looking at life of Leon and you, in the Bible it says when you
cast your net upon the water, it comes back tenfold.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You and Leon and the Peters family never asked for anything
for personal recognition, but you did it because you felt the good Lord had blessed
you and your family.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly, exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And you had given back.
>>Pete Peters: And that's the pledge I made to him that when he told me that you
can't take everything out of a community without putting something back in, and how
truly that is, it's very simple English, and how true it is that what we’ve got if
it wasn't for the community I know God is up there and helping us. But at the same
time, what we have is so precious thing. And I believe that maybe when I lost my
mother when I was 5 years old too and I could still picture Lee picking me up and

putting me to her, you know. And it just that those things kind of settled in to you
and it's just like embedding it in concrete, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: They stay with you.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You've seen a lot in your 92 years. You've seen a lot in what
has happened in Fresno. If you were to sit down with young people that are just
starting their career in business, who's starting their career in school, what would
be the most important things that you would tell these young people their life is
all before them, and you've had the benefit of years of experience and good mentors.
What advice would you give them?
>>Pete Peters: I will tell them the one statement that he made. You can't take
everything out of a community without putting something back in. The only thing that
you have, and mechanically, we need finances to build anything. I don't care whether
it's auditorium or whether it's--and you've seen it, the schooling, education, and
we want to be number one on the list there, and that we have to be number one. We
have to give in order to receive. And it's so plain, you know. And you don't--you
make your own sacrifice because you appreciate it more by making a little sacrifice
and giving it, you know. And that's one thing that he did and I felt I'm compelled
to follow that, you know. There is no way that big brother is going to--outdo you,
you know.
[Laughter]
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You know, Pete, one of the questions when I interview all the
Leon S. Peters recipient, and I want to ask you what did that mean to the family to
have this award, and I know you've attended many of the luncheons. I see you there
all the time.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah, that's right, that's right, that's right.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What did it mean to the family to have this name, this most
prestigious award named after Leon S. Peters?
>>Pete Peters: It means tremendously. It is just that the words can't describe it,
Peter, and Bud because it is fantastic. The little farm boy with the education of
high school, and yet, he lined us all up, I thought I can get this in too. To line
us all up, the 5 children and Dad too, and then he would go through east is east and
west is west, and never shall the twain meet. Then he had that--he had every one of
us memorized that, you know, and thing. And it meant so much to him and thing. And
then we went to the--high school graduation, and here everyone is lined up, you
know, and they applause him and whatnot, you know. I said, "That's a good subject,
I'm going to follow through with that." And everyone had the opportunity to.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Being a good mentor or good model.
>>Pete Peters: And so, maybe I'm a good copycat, but at the same time, it's good,
it's good, take it back, take the good ones and throw the bad ones away, discard
them, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Well, Fowler High School, there must be something down there
because I looked at the Fowler High graduates.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.

>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You know, I looked at all the Marv Baxter and a number of
people that have graduated there.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But you should take a lot of pride in those Fowler graduates.
I know Lee had a big reunion in 1983 of his class.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: At his house. I remember it's a big event. And so, Fowler
should be very proud of the Peters family.
>>Pete Peters: They are. The Fowler community, and it's like they just built a new
library there. If you see it, it is just beautiful, you know, and->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: But what--what I was going to ask you, the question I always
ask->>Pete Peters: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: To Leon S. Peters recipients, I quote the great Knute Rockne,
the great coach of Notre Dame.
>>Pete Peters: Yes, yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: He said when the great scorekeeper puts the score on the
board, what do you want to be remembered by->>Pete Peters: Uh hmm.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: What do you want people to say about your life, and how do you
want to be remembered. How do you want people to remember you and Leon S. Peters,
which you have, as you've said, you got a good role model that and being that sort
of the engineer you are, you had a good template and-[Laughter]
>>Pete Peters: That’s right. Why change it, why change it.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And so it's really of course. So, what do you want to be
remembered by? What do you want people to say about Leon Peters and Pete Peters and
the Peters family?
>>Pete Peters: The whole thing is that I do want them to remember you cannot take
everything out of a community without putting something back in.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay.
>>Pete Peters: And that covers a lot of sins, you know. It just gets miles and miles
long, you know, thing. And you could talk a lot about it, but do it. Reach in your
pocket and do it, you know. And--there are certain laws that we have to abide by,
you can't give it everything as you want to, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Certainly.

>>Pete Peters: And then with the whole thing is that that is one thing that I feel
that he implanted that in all of us. You can't take everything out without putting
something back in. And if you just--you may just analyze the words of it and it has
a meaning to it that you don't. And that why I picked out the hospital was I'd hate
to think of a mother standing there pregnant and they say, "I'm sorry, we can't take
you in because there's no room for you, you know." And now what does that poor woman
going to do with her husband there and the 3-4 kids too.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas:

Um hmm.

>>Pete Peters: And to get them to another hospital->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Pete Peters: --or and they're probably in the same situation. And so, I just feel
that the whole community is so well portioned that each one of us we help a little
bit and it doesn't take that much to do it, you know. Whether it's the library or
the Fowler library or that, those people have red blood flowing through their veins
too, you know. And you may say, "Well, they won't appreciate it." Everyone
appreciates it. I don't get, that is like putting a food in front of someone that's
hungry.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Um hmm.
>>Pete Peters: And I saw plenty of it in India and Burma and all through there.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas:

You’d experienced it.

>>Pete Peters: And so, it is--it's what you make of it, you know, and what are you
going to do about it, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: You certainly followed your father and Leon's advice.
>>Pete Peters: Yes.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: At the end of the day, the only thing you really have of
wealth is your reputation.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And you have lived a life and Leon lived that life and your
papa would be proud of the legacy of the Peters family. One last thing, Bud, that I
always ask as a teacher, if there is anything that I should have asked and I'm sure
that I didn't ask; if there's anything you just want to talk and add about on
anything, is there anything, Bud, that you think of we should add to this.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Have another sip of water here.
>>Pete Peters: Yeah okay.
>>Bud Richter: I think it would be important for Pete to say how Leon went around in
San Joaquin Valley in World War II, and you got all the other various manufacturers
together to join in the contracts. You mentioned about the torpedo tubes and the
bells that they do, but Leon got the various manufacturers altogether and to hold
valley effort for the war. And I don't think that came out as much as it could.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Okay, why don't we talk a little bit about that?

>>Pete Peters: Sure.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Because that's another principle of Rotary, service above
self, and all of that principle of Rotary. So, let's--and then anything you want to
have. But let's talk about as Bud just pointed out, that was very, very visionary
because most people look at their competitors and didn't talk to their competitors.
And we know the whole principle of Rotary when Rotary was founded, the founder
Harris of Rotary said, you know, "We deal with our competitors in a positive and
forthright manner."
>>Pete Peters: Exactly.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So Leon, let's talk about this as Bud mentioned during the
Second World War, he did what?
>>Pete Peters: He organized a group and he called him the San Joaquin Valley,
whatever it is. And but the idea was that we got organization--he did, I was in
Bombay.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Bombay, in India.
>>Pete Peters: And so, he got people in Bakersfield, the whole valley, and whatever
equipment they had and he made a list of it. And they knew very well that there
were--he knew very well that they were capable of doing this. In fact, I wanted to
come back out of the service, and he said, "Pete, you're there. You have to be there
to--"
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Sure.
>>Pete Peters: You can't be, I said, "Well gee there are so many people, don't tell
me what they do and what they don't do, you know."
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Yeah.
>>Pete Peters: And that was the--I forgot who the brothers that were in Bakersfield,
they had a machine shop similar to us, but we had the foundry. We could cast this
stuff and machine it, and then a finished product would go out. It's just like the
bells. They said, "What in the world you're going to make bells for." But we made
jigs and machine that you put and lathe in free willing, and it would just trace
that bell right on now, right to it. And then the Navy when they inspect them, they
had a hammer and they'd hit that and he could tell the sound whether there was a
flaw in it or whatnot, you know. We didn't have an x-ray machine or anything like
that then. But the whole thing is that it was a job that was presented to us and he
wanted to get that job to get started in Fresno. And that's where his home was and
that's where we wanted to start the thing, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: And he did.
>>Pete Peters: And to make it climb and goes thing, and he watched all the Navy, he
became very close to the Navy and the admiral used to come on down and then he would
take them around the country in Bakersfield and Lodi and all that, you know. And->>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: So, the whole community benefitted because of him bringing
these folks.

>>Pete Peters: Exactly, and during the war, instead of our good trained people go to
the Bay area to do the work, he brought the work here and they'd utilized the
equipment and everything like that, you know.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The significant, very significant.->>Pete Peters: Yeah. And so it was just--and one thing about him and myself too,
there is just like that fellow asked him, what did I tell you last time. If you're
not honest about it, you don't remember what--you do remember what he told you.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: Right.
>>Pete Peters: And thing.
>>Dr. Peter G. Mehas: The truth stays up. You don't have to--you don't have to
remember the truth.
>>Pete Peters: Exactly, you know.
>>Unidentified person: I have to interrupt [inaudible].
[Silence]
==== Transcribed by Automatic Sync Technologies ====

Item sets

Leon S. Peters Legacy Set