Cynthia “Cindy” Isitt Peterson of Laramie, Wyoming passed away peacefully at home June 3rd, 2021. She was 63.
Cindy was the first of four daughters born to Ray and Marge Isitt. She was born in Oakland, California, but lived in Kansas, and New Mexico during her father’s service as an US Air Force pilot. Her teen years were spent in both Southern and Northern California.
After graduating from Biola College in the Los Angeles area in 1980 as a music education major focused on voice, Cindy joined the international ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ as a musician. Based in the Black Forest area of Germany for three years, Cindy played keyboards and sang in MasterPeace and later Pacific— musical groups for Campus Crusade Europe that performed on college campuses and other venues all across Western Europe (including the Roskilde Festival in Denmark).
In March 1984, Pacific played in Schweinfurt, Germany where Cindy met her future husband Mark—an Army captain who had booked Pacific for the purpose of boosting the launch of a chaplain-sponsored teen outreach to military families.
After marrying Mark, Cindy moved to Schweinfurt where she lived for two years.
As her husband transitioned to civilian life in Atlanta, Georgia in 1987, Cindy became music director at a newly started church—Buckhead Community Church.
She served in this role for eight years. During this time, Cindy excelled as a vocalist, as well as spiritual leader for members of her singing ensembles.
As her own three daughters (Emily, Angela and Rachel) became elementary-school- aged, parents would ask Cindy to teach their children piano. After her family moved to Arlington, Texas in 1996 for her husband to begin work as a business professor, Cindy launched a piano-teaching studio in her home. She continued this studio after the family moved to Laramie, Wyoming in 2007. Cindy served as president of the Laramie chapter of the Music Teachers Association (MTA), and later as Wyoming’s president of the MTA. She is the MTA’s Wyoming Teacher of the Year for 2021.
Cindy enjoyed welcoming international students in Texas and in Wyoming. In Laramie, she was a leader in International Student Partners, a group from local churches extending hospitality to those from overseas now living in Laramie.
Later in life, Cindy became an avid tennis player like her father. She could press players rated as 3.5 in the USTA system. She appreciated the marvelous summers of Wyoming and would spend hours tending to her backyard garden.
In May 2019, Cindy began her fight against glioblastoma—the most aggressive form of brain tumor. A year later, she enrolled in a clinical trial started at Duke Medical Center, but now run out of Cleveland’s University Hospitals. Most battling glioblastoma do not have the opportunity to receive such state-of-the-art immunotherapy. Cindy was very thankful for this opportunity. Her willingness to pursue such treatment represents Cindy’s spirit for life and her “Cowgirl Up!” attitude toward her fight that also included the Cancer Center at Ivinson Hospital in Laramie.
Cindy is survived by her husband Mark, her three daughters (Emily Peterson of Nashville, Tennessee, Angela Fiedler of Fort Collins, Colorado and Rachel Musselman of Laramie, Wyoming), and her three grandchildren (Valerie, Claire and Ethan Fiedler).
A memorial service open to all will be held at the University of Wyoming’s Gateway Center in Laramie, Wyoming at 11:00 am Thursday, July 8th. It will be preceded by a “Cowgirl Up! Walk” to Green Hill Cemetery at 9:00 am that will begin and end on the north side of the Gateway Center. Cindy will be buried at Green Hill cemetery. All are welcome for the Cowgirl Up! Walk. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the “Cindy Peterson – Cowgirl Up! Fund” at the University of Wyoming Foundation (uwyo.edu/foundation, click on “Give to UW”).
