Bio

Tom Peters, a life of change

Tom is the oldest son, with 9 siblings, his father, Milton Charles Peters was a steelworker and mother, Susan Virginia Peters, a homemaker all lived in a small home in the blue-collar suburbs downriver from Detroit, MI.

Peters chose popularity over scholastics at the local public high school. With the lack of college funds available and mediocre grades, the steel mill welcomed him right after graduation. Laborer Peters started working in some incredibly miserable conditions but after a year, he got lucky. Tom’s uncle was an overhead crane operator, took him under his wing and guided Tom into the electrical department, operating a crane. By the fall of 1968, Tom and Patricia married in Oct. and he was drafted into the Army in Dec. After 6 months of training in the infantry, Private Peters, like many young men, shipped of to Vietnam for a one-year tour. Read Tom’s 2016 memoir “Step Away from the War” available on Amazon.

Upon returning to civilian life, Tom went back to the steel mill with seniority granted for by his military time. He and his wife had three children. Once they entered school Tom started using his GI benefits at Wayne State University. After first getting a certificate from a year at the Walter Ruther Labor School, he attended classes nights and weekends for 10 years and graduated with a Bachelor of General Studies.

The United Steelworkers had an education fund that Peters used for his Masters in the Science of Administration which took another 6 years and unfortunately the stress during this period ended his first marriage in 1986.

Fast forward to 1997, the year his father passed away, Tom had 30 years in the steel mill and was able to take an early retirement with a small pension.

A lifelong dream was fulfilled by moving west alone to California, where he worked as a teacher, graphic designer and administrator. In 2003, I enrolled in a 2-year program at California Pacific University and received my Doctor of Business Administration in 2005. That same year, Tom started at SMC as a part-time professor in High Tech Training Center, a support lab for the Center for Students with Disabilities.

A few years later he would be a tenured FT teacher and the Political Director for the Faculty Association until his retirement in 2020.

In 2022, Tom was elected to the Santa Monica College Board of Trustees.

The challenges of serving came to a head in February 2026 when Dr. Peters joined 3 colleagues on the board, in 4 to 3 vote, to cut staff and administrators to close a $17 million structural deficit. After losing union support, confident in his critical vote, he decided to run for re-election.

Tom in Vietnam, 1969