Peterson passed away on July 3 after a five-year struggle with Parkinson's Disease.

The daughter of immigrants, Peterson grew up in Southern California with no relatives other than her immediate family. Her husband, Keith, says that's largely what formed her love of history and why her philosophy was, "Contact your grandparents and find out what they did."

The Petersons came to Santa Clara County in 1951, before the onslaught of development. Keith worked at Westinghouse, Kay started teaching and they started a family.

Peterson didn't just find out what her grandparents did, she dug into local history.

She was a big part of preserving the old Sunnyvale and its unique past. After retiring from teaching in 1980, Peterson was hired back as a part-time contractor to develop the school district's "History Docent Program."

It continues today, run by the Sunnyvale Historical Society. The program is aimed at third- and fourth-graders who take half-day field trips to the Historical Museum to learn about their hometown's beginnings.

In the early days of the program, Peterson and other docents would dress in period costumes and carry a trunk filled with old farming implements, toys and household gadgets to local schools. They would demonstrate how a handheld meat grinder worked, and then let the students try it for themselves.

Old-time residents would also speak to the classes, so the students could learn about famous local families. They'd learn Murphy Road was named after one of Sunnyvale's first settlers, Martin Murphy.

When the Murphy Mansion was torn down in 1961, it was Kay Peterson's call to action. In an interview in 1989, she recalled, "People keep saying...what a shame about that old house. But I said to them, 'Did you attend the meetings? Did you show up to complain, to raise Cain?' "

Sunnyvale's Historical Preservation Society was formed shortly thereafter. But Peterson's zeal really took hold in 1977 when she invited Manuel Vargas, another Sunnyvale pioneer, to talk to her second-grade class about what life was like at the turn of the century.

In the introduction to her book Sunnyvale Collage II, Peterson wrote, "...the children sat in rapt attention... they did not want to let him leave when the allotted time was up. I was intrigued myself."

And so her odyssey began. Her husband, Keith, says gathering the bits and pieces of Sunnyvale's history "kept us all busy. I had to participate, but because there was so much going on I wanted to slow it down."

That didn't happen. In 1981 Peterson published Sunnyvale Collage, a resource guide for teachers. In 2000 she followed with a more extensive text, the above-referenced Sunnyvale Collage II.

In between there were lots of awards, including the Sunnyvale School District's "Good Apple" Award, the California State and Local History Award and an AAUW Citizen of Achievement award.

Peterson also found time for other pursuits, including helping establish the San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. Her arguments for the refuge, as told to the Los Altos Town Crier in 1971, included the fact that the bay is the nesting area for the California clapper rail. She asked, "If we cannot save these rare and unusual birds and preserve this beauty in our urban area in the onslaught for development, how can we save ourselves?"