Douglas W. Petersen (March 7, 1948 – July 1, 2014) was an American politician who served as Commissioner of the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources from 2007 to 2009 and represented the 8th Essex District in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the State legislature (United States), state legislature of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into ...

from 1991 to 2007. In 2007, Petersen upset residents of

Lynn, Massachusetts Lynn is the eighth-largest List of municipalities in Massachusetts, municipality in Massachusetts, United States, and the largest city in Essex County, Massachusetts, Essex County. Situated on the Atlantic Ocean, north of the Boston city line ...

after he stated at a

Swampscott Swampscott () is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, located up the coast from Boston in an area known as the North Shore. The population was 15,111 as of the 2020 United States census. A former summer resort on Massachusetts ...

School Committee meeting that Swampscott children would "be captains of industry" who would one day need good employees "so we have to educate Lynn kids". He was born on

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

and lived in Marblehead at the time of his death.Douglas W. Petersen-obituary
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References

Democratic Party members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives People from Marblehead, Massachusetts People from Rockville Centre, New York Wagner College alumni Simmons University alumni Harvard Kennedy School alumni 1948 births 2014 deaths 21st-century members of the Massachusetts General Court 20th-century members of the Massachusetts General Court {{Massachusetts-MARepresentative-stub