SACO – Dr. Walter R. Peterlein, M.D., 77, a resident of Spinnaker Lane, passed away Thursday, Jan. 10, at his residence.

He was born in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 4, 1930, a son of Daisy Walker and Walter Peterlein. He was educated in local schools, attended Brigham Young University and graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School. He completed his postgraduate training at St. Benedict’s Hospital in Ogden, Utah. He served in the U.S. Marine Corps, as a lieutenant, during the Korean War. He married Patricia Marshall of Old Orchard Beach in 1952.

He was one of the first board-certified family physicians in Maine, and practiced family medicine in Springvale and Sanford for 20 years. A member of the medical staff at H.D. Goodall Hospital from 1959 to 1978, he served as chief of staff, chief of obstetrics, and director of the coronary unit. He also served as an instructor and preceptor for the Maine Medical Family Residency Program in Portland.

In 1978, he moved with his family to Auburn, where he became the associate director of the family practice center at Central Maine Medical Center in Lewiston. Later, he became the director, where he was responsible for the training of physicians, many of whom practice medicine in Maine.

From 1978 to 1993, he served as a clinical professor for the Boston University School of Medicine. Prior to his retirement in 1997, he was on the staff at Brunswick Naval Air Station, where he cared for the families of servicemen. After his retirement, he was a part-time instructor at the New England College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Biddeford.

A longtime member of the Unitarian Universalist Church, he served on various boards and social action programs. His hobbies included reading, playing bridge, fishing, hunting, skiing, golfing, woodworking and gardening.

He is survived by his beloved wife of 55 years, Patricia, of Saco; three daughters, Susan Seluke and her life partner, Dennis Ring, of Bath, Jane McGuire of Arundel, and Catherine and her life partner, Jane Rodgers, of Inverness, Calif.; two sons, William Peterlein and his wife, Rebecca, of New Gloucester, and Eric Peterlein of Auburn; eight grandchildren, Hannah and Gretchen Seluke, Matthew and Christopher McGuire, and Jessica, Adam, Thomas, and Catherine Peterlein; a great-granddaughter, Haley Seluke; his brother, Robert of Newago, Mich.; his sister, Sally Hamblin of Provo, Utah; as well as several nieces and nephews.