USU holds fireside chat with Dr. F Ross Peterson for his new book ‘Christmas in Montpelier”

On December 7th, 2020 USU hosted a fireside chat with Dr. F. Ross Peterson, who served as a history professor at Utah State University for thirty-three years. Peterson has released several books in his life, but recently published an unusual and unique book called “Christmas in Montpelier.” 

“Christmas in Montpelier” is entirely nonfiction, detailing Dr. Peterson’s childhood Christmases. This project was vastly different from his experience writing books about American History. Dr. Peterson’s historical works were factual, but this project was based solely on memory. 

Dr. Peterson revealed during the zoom fireside chat that the beginnings of his new book started 21 years ago when a colleague asked him to speak about Christmas stories. This was the first time Dr. Peterson had really thought about his childhood Christmas stories and a spark ignited. 

“I don’t know whether I’m blessed or cursed, but I remember a lot of stuff,” said Peterson. His childhood memories of Christmas continued coming back to him; one of the stories featured in his book “Christmas in Montpelier” is from when Peterson was five years old. His Christmases were spent on his family farm, where work never stopped, not even on Christmas. There were cows to be milked and farm chores to be done, which is certainly a unique way to grow up. 

When Dr. Peterson started digging into his memory banks and documenting his Christmas memories, he showed his family. The response from his children and grandchildren was so positive that he was encouraged to write more and more until he had an entire book featuring his Christmas memories dating back to the 1940s and 1950s. 

One of the biggest motivators for Dr. Peterson to finish this remarkable Christmas project was to create a connection between generations. 

During his time at Utah State University, Dr. F. Ross Peterson achieved a lot including receiving the Governor’s Outstanding Humanist Award for Utah in 1998. Still, Dr. Peterson’s greatest achievement is his positive attitude towards teaching that created a positive impact on his students. 

Over 61 people joined the zoom fireside chat with Dr. Peterson on December 7, most of them were past students from USU who were impacted by Dr. Peterson’s classes. Several of his past students sent in comments about their memories of Dr. Peterson. They noted that Dr. Peterson always remembered his students’ names and was unfailingly kind. It seems that Dr. Peterson helped his students through their difficult times just as much as his professors helped him through his. 

Dr. Peterson’s book “Christmas in Montpelier” is available on Amazon. 

Emily White is a junior studying English and broadcast journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.

—emily.white@usu.edu