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DONALD W. PETERSON
Partner (Retired)
Leydig, Voit & Mayer
JD 1957, St. Louis University Law School
Honorary Doctorate of Engineering, 1989, UMR
After only four years of working with Monsanto and applying his chemical engineering education, he earned his JD and specialized in patent law for the remainder of his 32 years with Monsanto. During his career with Monsanto, Don also served his community as a Municipal Judge in Des Peres, Missour for twenty-five yearsi. Don retired from Monsanto in 1985 as Associate General Patent Counsel, and was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as Deputy Commissioner of Patents & Trademarks and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce in Washington, D.C. He returned to the St. Louis area and joined the intellectual property law firm of Leydig, Voit, & Mayer in 1988 as a partner, retiring in 1994. He is a member of numerous bars and has been admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court. Don and his wife Mary reside in Des Peres, Missouri. They have one son, Dr. Donald W. Petterson Jr., whose dental practice is in Houston, Texas. Don was inducted into the Academy in 1996.