Arthur Gene Petersen

Dr. Petersen died Wednesday, March 3, 2004, at Somerset Health Center of Claridge Court in Prairie Village.

He was born Sept. 21, 1927, in Washington County, Neb. He grew up in Nebraska and graduated from Millard High School in 1944. He studied for a year at the University of Nebraska before serving with the U.S. Army for two years in Japan.

He returned to the United States and enrolled at Kansas University, where he played center on the basketball team under coach Phog Allen. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1950 and began studying at the KU Medical Center. He earned his medical degree in 1954 and completed his internship and residency at St. Luke’s Hospital and Trinity Lutheran Hospital.

He was a doctor of internal medicine from 1959 to 1985 in Kansas City, Mo., and Prairie Village.

Dr. Petersen was board certified, a member of Phi Chi medical fraternity and the American College of Physicians and a life member of the Kansas Alumni Association. He had been published in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. and Archives of Internal Medicine.

Survivors include his wife, Karol (Soldanels) Petersen, of the home; a son, Eric, of the home; a daughter, Dana, Overland Park; two brothers, Gerald, Overland Park, and Clark, Renton, Wash.; and a sister, Edna Jamsgard, Phoenix.

Family will receive friends from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Monday at Mount Moriah & Freeman Funeral Home in Kansas City, Mo.

The family suggests memorials to Odyssey Hospice, 9229 Ward Parkway, Suite 350, Kansas City, MO 64114.