William Peter

Bill Peter was born on Sept. 17, 1955 in Maywood, California. He grew up in the Ventura area.

Bill was deeply impacted by his 6th grade teacher, Ms. Harris. She planted seeds of faith in his life. When he was in 7th grade, Bill met his best friend George “Sarge” Morris on the bus to school. Sarge and Bill remained friends for more than 50 years.

As a high school student, Bill was invited to play softball with a church league team. The friends who invited Bill told him they needed a catcher — but really, it was Bill who needed to come and hear about Jesus. Through this church league softball, Bill heard the Good News of what Jesus has done. Bill came to know Jesus as Savior at age 17, and he served his Savior faithfully for the rest of his life.

After going to college and working for a few years, Bill found himself living near his father’s hometown in Louisiana. On Palm Sunday of 1983, Bill went to church there in Hammond, LA and met the love of his life, Jeanne Ann Hicks. Bill and Jeanne got married in August of 1985, and they were faithful to each other for the rest of their 37 years of marriage.

Bill was a loving, committed, and proud father to his son William and to his daughter Tabitha. He had dinner with his family every night, and he came to every ball game, recital, and ceremony in which his children were involved. He prayed with them every evening, and he taught them to give to God that which is His.

In addition to serving as a husband and father, Bill was a leader in the Gideons International, a generous donor to Vacation Bible School, a discipleship teacher, and a member of the evangelism team at his local church.  Bill was a faithful friend who always kept up with people. He never drove past someone who appeared to be in need. Anyone who knew Bill knows that he loved to tell stories from his adventurous life — which meant the stories were real, honest, sometimes tacky, always hilarious, and often cracked him up as he recounted them.

Professionally, Bill’s career was marked by the incredible developments in computing technology that paralleled his life. He began working on accounting projects using punch paper tape in the 1970s, and he ended his career merging large data sets using SQL and Azure. Bill always worked analytical jobs, and he was incurably detail oriented.

Bill welcomed two international students into the Peter family - a German son, Nils, and a Chinese daughter, Christine. Bill loved Nils and Christine, and he gave them each a home here in the USA.

On Sept. 24th, 2021, Bill was diagnosed with glioblastoma, a rare and aggressive form of brain cancer. At a follow-up doctor’s visit on Sept. 29th, the doctor told Bill that this cancer would take his life. Bill left that doctor’s office with total confidence in the Sovereignty and Goodness of God. That very evening, Bill went with the evangelism team from First Baptist Church of Madison, TN for their weekly evangelism work in the nearby apartment complex. Bill prayed with residents in the neighborhood that evening, telling them about God’s plan of salvation through Jesus and about the Goodness and Faithfulness of his God.

The final months of Bill’s life were characterized by intense suffering. Even in the face of this suffering, Bill would still pray and give thanks to God. Bill loved to listen to the Psalms, and he enjoyed watching the TV series The Chosen.

Bill experienced complete healing when he went to be with Jesus on the morning of Oct. 03, 2022. He is survived by his wife Jeanne Peter (née Hicks), his son William Stephen Peter, his daughter Tabitha Kay Peter, his brother-in-law Steve Hicks (Wendy), his nephew and niece Luke and Grace Hicks, and his mother-in-law Minnie Hicks. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Gideons International and/or the Scott Hamilton CARES Foundation. The visitation will be held on Thursday, Oct. 06 at 10 am, with the funeral service to follow at noon. Both will be held at the Madison First Baptist Church in Madison, TN.