Eric Peterson

TRACY — Eric’s battle is over and he is at peace. Eric Peterson died on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014, in the ICU at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina of heart block and respiratory failure. Services for Eric, 45, of Minneapolis, and formerly of Tracy, will take place at 1 p.m. on Monday at Tracy Lutheran Church. Visitation will be from 3-7 p.m. on Sunday, with a service of remembering at 5 p.m. at Almlie-Horvath Funeral Home in Tracy. Visitation will continue one hour prior to the service at the church. A lunch will follow the service. Burial will take place at Bethany Cemetery in rural Garvin. A Celebration of Life Ceremony will take place at 3:00 p.m. at the Inside Out Studios (7156 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie, MN 55344)on Saturday, December 13, 2014. Memorials for Eric are preferred to Special Olympics of Minnesota or TMB softball and can be mailed to 2247 140th Ave. Garvin MN, 56132. Eric Hobert Peterson was born June 7, 1969, to Winston and Elle (Uggen) Peterson in Tracy. Eric graduated from Tracy Area High School in 1987 and from Augsburg College in 1991 with a Bachelors in Communications/Marketing. He most recently was employed at Thomson Reuters in Eagan as a conference manager. He previously worked as a marketing manager for Select Comfort, as a managing director for Ryan Partnership and as a senior marketing manager for Dairy Queen’s Northeast and Midwest divisions. Eric’s marketing background and love of sports meshed when he worked in the marketing department for the Minnesota Timberwolves in the 1990s. Eric was diagnosed with Addison’s Disease when he was 8, which prevented him from taking part in many competitive sports (except golf, of course), but he more than made up for it with a big heart and a giving spirit that eventually brought him into the Special Olympics family. Besides having a passion for sports at all levels — high school, collegiate and professional — he truly loved sharing his time with his Special Olympics athletes in a head coaching position with football, basketball, track and field and bowling teams in the Twin Cities. He organized practices, coached games and trained other coaches to help work with the kids and prepare them for competition. Eric also coached a Challengers Little League baseball team and was a driver for the Ronald McDonald House of Minneapolis. Eric’s other passion was his family — most notably his nephew, Alex, and his nieces, Galiya and Olivia. They were the children he never had, and he took every opportunity available to spoil them — on one condition: that they earned it and were good people; like any parent, he expected a lot out of them. He thoroughly enjoyed helping them with sports — Alex with golf, and Galiya and Olivia with softball. Sports was one thing that really bonded Eric and the kids, and he was committed to making sure these three excelled — not only in sports, but in the classroom, as well as in life. Eric’s survivors include his parents; his sister Sissa and her husband David Bitton and their son Alex and daughter Galiya of Lake Maria; his brother Per and his daughter Olivia of Lake Maria; his Italian sister Elisabetta Frigerio of Lecco, Italy, and her family; aunt Janice (and Rick) Johnson of Bloomington; uncle Kermit Uggen of St. Paul; cousins David (and Karen) Johnson and their children of Rosemount, Michelle Johnson and daughter of Bloomington, Kathy (and JD) Uggen-Merget and their children of Brooklyn, N.Y., and Chris (and Rhonda) Uggen and their children of St. Paul; other cousins; a number of godchildren; and far too many friends to list. We will all miss you dearly, Eric. Go Celtics!