![\"\"](\"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/50-4-Monica-Bartlett-Don-Peters-8-Oct-1965-pinned-600x590.jpg\")
\u201cAnd she was cute!\u201d Don said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifty-nine years later and settled in Pullman, Monica and Don continue to donate to the WSU Libraries, giving back to the university that sparked their love for lifelong learning and each other. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monica, who studied French and education at WSU, said libraries receive less funding from private donations and state budgets compared to sports, but research developed through WSU Libraries is essential for the university. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
She often uses the microfilm reader in Holland Library, searching through old newspaper articles for her clients at the Whitman County Genealogical Society. Monica began her research work about 25 years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey\u2019re looking for their roots,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it\u2019s really important for people to know from whence they came and from whom they came.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The project closest to Monica\u2019s heart remains the research she compiled on her family history. She finished a book on their history in 2021. She\u2019s made of \u201cpioneer stock,\u201d with early family members traveling west by wagon train on the Oregon Trail to arrive in Washington. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don, who earned a degree in communications, fondly recalls memories of visiting the Owen Science and Engineering Library during lunch breaks, paging through technical journals when he started college as an electrical engineering major.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe value the education we received here, and the libraries were a part of that,\u201d Don said. \u201cWe just want to ensure those resources are available for current generations and beyond.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lasting memories<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Don remembers joining the Cougar Marching Band his first semester as a tenor saxophone player. He became the middle peak of the \u201cW\u201d as the band marched across the football field spelling out \u201cWSU,\u201d feeling exhilarated as he stood across from the roaring student section. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He lived in Goldsworthy Hall, 50 yards from Monica in McAllister Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In Monica\u2019s junior year, she moved into the brand-new Stephenson Hall North on the eighth floor, where she and her roommate were excited to find they had a phone in their room. Otherwise, she said they would have had to share two phones with an entire floor of women, sticking to a 10-minute call limit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe thought we were pretty uptown,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Before Monica and Don\u2019s senior year, they married and later had their son. Still a full-time student, Monica took two courses and taught French and Spanish at Colfax High School as a student teacher. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When the pair graduated from WSU in February 1969, Don was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army, with Monica pinning his lieutenant\u2019s bars onto his uniform during the ceremony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Leaving the Cougar den<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When Don arrived in Vietnam in June 1970, he was placed into the American Forces Vietnam Network in Quy Nhon, helping run radio and television for troops. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI had a good job in Vietnam,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get shot at too much either.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n His detachment broadcast Top 40 music on AM radio and American shows on FM radio, classical and easy-listening music on FM radio, and U.S. network television shows on TV, which were transmitted from film. Don said he credits his \u201cgood job\u201d in Vietnam to his experience as an Edward R. Murrow College of Communication alum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n At WSU, Don worked as a student engineer for KWSU Radio\/Television and as a board operator for KWSU-TV on nights and weekends. He remembers pulling an all-nighter to replace a television transmitter so the station could avoid being off the air, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Don was in Vietnam, Monica moved back to Tekoa with the couple\u2019s 3-week-old and 2-year-old. There, she launched her 42-year career of private piano lessons, teaching students for three hours after school, she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1974, Monica and Don returned to Pullman when Don joined the staff of Northwest Public Broadcasting. They also began work on their master\u2019s degrees in measurement and evaluation and adult and continuing education, respectively. They graduated five years later. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cEverybody in Pullman\u2019s very well educated, and why wouldn\u2019t we want to keep up with that trend?\u201d Monica said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, the couple plan to stay healthy and continue traveling. Monica and Don have visited 70 countries, such as Nepal, Monica\u2019s favorite. Monica is eager to check new places off of her bucket list, including the Norwegian fjords and the Gal\u00e1pagos Islands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI love to see new places, [and I\u2019m] always wondering what\u2019s around the next bend and what\u2019s over the next hill,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was 1964 in Pullman, and just under 10,000 students attended WSU. Two of those students were Monica Bartlett and Don Peters, who were in awe of the campus compared to their small Washington hometowns of Tekoa and Pasco, respectively. Monica, whose high school graduating class was 26 people, said she loved everything about college, […]","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":717,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[125,122,124,123,37,56],"class_list":["post-722","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-browse","tag-don-peters","tag-donations","tag-monica-peters","tag-why-i-give","tag-wsu-alumni","tag-wsu-libraries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=722"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":726,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/722\/revisions\/726"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=722"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=722"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=722"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/libraries.wsu.edu\/friends\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2023\/12\/50-15-Monica-Bartlett-Don-Peters-26-Mar-1966-1.jpg\")