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 ALUMNI ACTION: Mike Peterson
“I don’t think I’ve done
anything too earth shattering.
I just kind of went with the
flow, worked hard and ended
up here.” Mike Peterson (UNI
1973, music education)
We often talk about the
“divergent career path” some of
our alumni take after graduating.
Mike Peterson is a prime
example. A trumpet player, he
left UNI for his first teaching
job at Wapsie Valley [Fairbank,
Iowa] then to Forest City as the
high school director. While there, he started taking flying lessons,
got his private pilot’s license and bought a Cessna. He later moved
to the Waterloo area to play in a band called Surprise and teach
part time in the Waterloo Schools’ music program. By then he had finished all his flying ratings and did some flight instruction and
charter flying, “still with no intentions of making a career out of
it,” Mike said.
However, soon it became clear that he needed to either get back
into teaching full time or “take the plunge” to become a pilot. So
in 1989 he got a full time flying job in Norfolk, NE, with mostly
charter flying which helped him build up his hours. He was hired
by American Eagle (American Airlines’ commuter airline) and was
first based in Albany, New York, then Nashville and Miami. In
1998 he was hired by United and has been based in San Francisco.
“So without any kind of initial goal to become an airline pilot I
ended up doing just that. Unfortunately, in the last 10 years, the
stature of an airline pilot’s career is a far cry from what it once was,
but I still consider myself fortunate to have made it there.”
He still plays the trumpet in “an amateur, mostly adult concert
band that plays music along the lines that a high school band would play...marches, classical, show tunes, etc.” They rehearse
weekly and play 4-5 concerts a year. Mike has been able to attend
most of the activities. Even through some health challenges, he
said, “once I get there and start playing, there’s a certain healing
power of the music that gives me a lift.” Time permitting, he
will substitute on a very limited basis in a swing band (30’s, 40’s
music).
Mike also enjoys returning to Iowa regularly to work on restoring
an old barn on the family farm between New Hartford and
Parkersburg. |
