San Mateo County
Biographies
THEODORE SCARBOROUGH PETERSEN
Theodore
Scarborough Petersen, president of Standard Oil Company of California, was born
in Logan, Utah, on October 6, 1896. The son of Soren (realtor) and Annie Elizabeth (Scarborough).
The family moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1912.
Graduated from the Washington High School,
Portland, Oregon, in 1916; president of the student body and treasurer of
senior class. During World War I he attended Field Artillery Officers’ Training
School, Zachary Taylor, Louisville, Kentucky. After the Armistice he returned
to Portland and engaged in the real estate business, managing an apartment
house for two years.
On June 21, 1922, Mr. Petersen obtained a
position with the Standard Oil Company of California, as service station
salesman, in Portland, Oregon; transferred to substation salesman, Sales
Department, in Medford, Oregon, in July of 1924, then special agent at
Marshfield, Oregon, and held that same position one year later at Everett,
Washington. In 1926 he was made a dealer specialist with the Seattle agency,
and became jobbing salesman in 1928 at Boise, Idaho, covering Idaho, Utah,
Montana and Nevada. In 1929 was made jobbing salesman with headquarters in
Seattle, covering Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Nevada, and
later that same year, held the same position for the Los Angeles agency;
transferred to Standard Stations, Inc., on January 1, 1931, as assistant
manager of the Oakland division; became division manager of Merchandising Department,
Standard Stations home office, on September 1, 1931.
Mr. Petersen became assistant manager of
Merchandising Department, home office, in January of 1932, and became manager
of same one year later, then advanced to general manager of Standard Stations,
Inc., on January 1, 1938; transferred to Standard of California on September
15, 1938, as assistant to the president, also manager of the Employee Relations
and Personnel Department; appointed assistant general sales manager in March of
1941, and general manager of Sales, Marketing Department, in September of 1941.
He was elected to the Board of Directors on June 12, 1942, vice president on
December 27, 1942, and has been president since January 8, 1948.
He acts as director of the American
Petroleum Institute, Western Oil and Gas Association, Pacific Mutual Life
Insurance Company, and is trustee of the California Academy of Sciences.
Member of the business Advisory Council,
United States Department of Commerce; member of National Council of United Negro
College Fund, Inc.; consulting professor of Marketing at Graduate School of
Business, Stanford University.
Mr. Petersen holds membership in the
following clubs: Pacific Union (San Francisco), Burlingame Country (Burlingame,
California), Los Angeles (California); Burning Tree (Washington, D.C.);
Arlington (Portland, Oregon); Rainier (Seattle, Washington); Links (New York
City).
On November 19, 1919, he married Alice Hawman and they have one son, Theodore S., Jr. Their home is at 246 West Santa Inez Road,
Hillsborough, California.
Office address: 225 Bush Street, San Francisco, California.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: “Eminent Californians 1953”,
by Lee E. Johnson & C. W. Taylor. Page 563, C. W. Taylor
Publ., Palo Alto, California, 1953.
© 2014 Cecelia M. Setty.
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