USC’s oldest alumnus dies at 109


Victor Wellington Peters, USC’s oldest alumnus who graduated in the class of 1924, died Aug. 12, according to USC News. He was 109.

After studying at the newly created University of California, Los Angeles campus for two years, Peters took a year off from school to build houses with his father in the nearby area. He returned to his studies in 1922 across town at USC and graduated with a bachelor degree in fine arts two years later.

Soon after, he earned a degree from Princeton’s Theological Seminary and embarked on a 13-year-long missionary trip to Seoul, Korea. There, he met and married his wife Ruth.

Peters returned to the United States during World War II and worked in Los Angeles for the remainder of his life. He was involved in a wide range of activities, which included working as a pastor at local churches, a teacher at Azusa College and an artist for an L.A. printing company.

In 2006, Peters gifted the letters he sent to his family while in Korea to USC’s Korean Heritage Library, where they were digitized and put online. He browsed through this library on his last trip to USC in 2010.

He is survived by four children, Grace, Margaret, Elona and Mel. He is also survived by eight grandchildren, 24 great-grandchildren and three great-great-grandchildren.