Harry H. Peterson, Associate Justice 1936-1950

H.H. Peterson, ex-justice of Supreme Court, dies

Published January 24, 1985

Copyright permission granted by Star Tribune

Harry Peterson, a former Minnesota attorney general and Supreme Court associate justice, died Wednesday of a stroke at Parkway Nursing Home in St. Paul.  He was 94. 

Peterson was Ramsey County attorney from 1923 to 1926 and was attorney general under Gov. Floyd B. Olson from 1933 to 1936. He helped draft the Minnesota Mortgage Moratorium Law, which created a moratorium on farm foreclosures during the Depression, and successfully defended it before the U.S. Supreme Court. 

In 1938 he was appointed to the state Supreme Court, where he served two six-year terms before resigning to run for governor in 1950. He won the Democratic-Farmer-Labor nomination against Orville Freeman, who was elected governor four years later.  Peterson lost in the general election to Republican incumbent, Luther Youngdahl.

Peterson, a 1912 graduate of the University of Minnesota Law School, was also an associate dean and instructor at Metropolitan College of Law in Minneapolis.  When it disbanded he founded and was dean of Midwestern College of Law, which later became Hamline University Law School. 

Peterson also remained active in private practice until his death.

U.S. District Judge Miles Lord, who as an attorney opposed Peterson on several cases and as judge presided over cases in which he was involved, called him a "great political figure, and a great figure in the judiciary."

Peterson is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Clements (Harriet) Oliver of Sedona, Ariz.; a son, Donald E. Peterson of San Francisco; four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation is scheduled for 7 to 9 p.m. Friday at Holcomb-Henry Funeral Home, 536 Snelling Av. N., St. Paul.  Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home.  Burial will be at Oakland Cemetery.