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Winslow Award recipient Doug Peters hugs emcee John Swick during the Greater Meadville Area Day dinner sponsored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County at The Country Club of Meadville.
John Swick addresses the crowd during the Greater Meadville Area Day Dinner sponsored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County.
Doug Peters takes an emotional break during his speech after being named the 2022 recipient of the Winslow Award during the Greater Meadville Area Day Dinner sponsored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County at The Country Club of Meadville.
Winslow Award recipient Doug Peters hugs emcee John Swick during the Greater Meadville Area Day dinner sponsored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County at The Country Club of Meadville.
John Swick addresses the crowd during the Greater Meadville Area Day Dinner sponsored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County.
Doug Peters takes an emotional break during his speech after being named the 2022 recipient of the Winslow Award during the Greater Meadville Area Day Dinner sponsored by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County at The Country Club of Meadville.
WOODCOCK TOWNSHIP — “My goodness,” a visibly moved J. Douglas Peters said after arriving at the podium.
Peters, 69, chief executive officer of Peters Heat Treating and a community volunteer, received the 2022 Winslow Award at The Country Club of Meadville on Wednesday evening. The award, initiated in 1969, was presented at the close of the Greater Meadville Area Day dinner held by the Economic Progress Alliance of Crawford County.
The Winslow Award honors an individual, group, business or industry that has made a significant contribution to the economic growth of the greater Meadville area.
It’s named for Dr. Harry C. Winslow, an area physician and business leader who received the inaugural award on his 85th birthday from the Meadville Area Industrial Commission, a predecessor organization of the alliance.
“In 1979, my wife, Jackie, was one of the few people who believed we could do what we did,” Peters said in brief remarks. “I couldn’t do this without Jackie — she’s been a rock. We went three years without a paycheck as we started the business.”
Peters and his wife opened a small 2,000-square-foot heat treating shop in Meadville’s Fifth Ward area with help from family members. It began with one customer and led to servicing the heat treating needs of the local tooling and machining industry.
Since then, the business has grown to the point where it has more than 32,000 square feet of manufacturing space plus a headquarters facility in West Mead Township just outside the city plus another another location in McKean in Erie County servicing the Erie area.
Peters’ Heat Treating now has more than 1,000 customers in an array of industries including aerospace, nuclear, automotive, oil and gas, military, plastic molding, rubber molding, heavy equipment, computer and medical, in addition to tooling and machining firms.
Peters also was an innovator in creating computer software to better track a job’s progress as it moved through the shop and between shop locations as such software didn’t exist at the time in the heat treating industry.
These days Peters is semi-retired, serving as the company’s chief executive officer as day-to-day operations of the firm transitioned in 2017 to his two children and his son-in-law. Peters’ daughter Diana (Peters) Wilkosz is vice president of administration, son-in-law Andy Wilkosz is president, and son Christopher is IT manager.
“They’ve been running the company since 2017 — they’re knocking it out of the park,” Peters said.
“We’ve had such great support from the people of Meadville, Crawford County and really the tri-state area,” he added. “I can’t thank you enough.”
In presenting the award, John Swick, the emcee for the event, noted Peters also found time to serve on many community service boards and industry trade association boards as well as be a long-time basketball coach.
Peters has served with the Meadville-Western Crawford County Chamber of Commerce, the Northwestern Pennsylvania Chapter of the National Tooling and Machining Association, and the Metal Treating Institute.
In the mid-1990s, he co-chaired the creation of the Northwest Pennsylvania Tooling Center museum. He currently serves on the Board of Corporators for Meadville Medical Center and is treasurer of the Conneaut Lake Aquatic Management Association.
Peters served as head coach of the varsity girls basketball program at Meadville Area Senior High for many years and coached Seton School’s middle school program prior to that.
“Oh yeah — a little, a little, good gravy!” Peters responded with a laugh when asked by a Meadville Tribune reporter following the award if he was surprised at earning the honor.
Peters said what drives him is the depth of his family’s history in the community.
“I think our company loves to help people,” he said. “We’ve always tried to do the right thing. It sounds so cliché, it really does, but I just always loved the people I did business with and all the people I’ve known over the years.”
Keith Gushard can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at kgushard@meadvilletribune.com.
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