Arlene Louise Hellenberg Petersen

January 26, 1923 – August 20, 2015

Arlene was born on January 26, 1923 to Fern (Keillor) Hellenberg and Carl Hellenberg in Highland Park, Michigan.  This was a small middle class enclave surrounded by the city of Detroit with the best public school system she ever encountered. At 14 the family moved to Detroit where she graduated from Redford High School in Jan. of 1940.

She went on to the University of Michigan, graduating in Jan. of 1944 with a BS degree in Zoology. It was there that she met Max Petersen who had come East from Idaho to get a degree in engineering.  In June of 1944 Max was accepted in the U.S. Navy with a month’s leave before reporting for OCS.  This led to a week’s planning for a wartime wedding and Max’s opportunity to introduce Arlene to the West.  Before her marriage she had never been further west than Chicago.  Before that first year was out she had been to Idaho, New York state, Florida and California which engendered a lifelong love of traveling.

With Max’s discharge from the Navy they returned to Michigan until Max heard of jobs available at Hanford , Washington, next door to his beloved Idaho.  He accepted a job there and they moved to Richland.   Arlene arrived on her 25^th birthday to a country with brown earth, brown weeds, no trees, a big brown river and lots of brown dust.

It was a good move. Things got greener.  Everybody was new and friendly.  After a couple of years in an apartment they were assigned an E house where she lived for 65 years.  Their lives were enriched by their children, Chris, Marc and Lee Anne.  Max loved the fishing and hunting available and Arlene filled her life with children, home, church and volunteer work.  After the children were grown she went to work for the A.E.C., later ERDA, and still later D.O.E. 

She filled her life with her family, volunteering to sew for the Kadlec Auxiliary, playing bridge as often as possible and continuing her education at CBC with classes that interested her and satisfied her lifelong love of learning.  She was a P.E.O.  for xxx years.   Her love of travel was fed by trips to every continent but Antarctica and most parts of the U.S.A.  She also enjoyed books, participation in her church and sewing.  Her greatest satisfaction in life was in raising loving, responsible children

She is preceded in death by her parents, husband Max and son Marc.  She is survived by her son, Chris Petersen and wife Nancy, daughter, Lee Anne Petersen-Walker and husband Barry Walker, and her grandchildren, Wendy Petersen and husband Verni Jogaratnam, Eric and Travis.

A Celebration of Arlene’s Life will be held at Shalom UCC Church Monday, September 14^th at 1:00 pm, with a reception following.  Memorials can be made to The Tri-Cities Chaplaincy Hospice and Shalom United Church of Christ.