By Jeanny Rhee

There are locals that merely make up Seattle and there are long-time locals that epitomize Seattle’s bohemian culture and spirit. Seattle native and Roosevelt High School alum Norman Petersen would be the latter.

Born in 1944, Petersen is an aficionado of sailboats, a social activist, father of three sons and an adherent of the Bahá’í Faith.

The men in his family has resided in Ballard since the 1920s when his father, Joakim Petersen, and his uncle, Jacob Petersen, worked as fishermen out of Fisherman’s Terminal after immigrating from Norway.

But what separates him from your average coffee-drinking and beard-sporting Seattleite is that he spends most of the year docked at the Ballard Mill Marina and in the northwestern coast of the Puget Sound on his sailboat.

“I see Norman as a bit of a gypsy,” said Zabine Van Ness, director and curator of the Washington Bahá’í History Museum in the University District, and Petersen’s long-time friend. “He flows from one happening to another happening in his life; he’s never in one place.”

Whereas gypsies often travel together, Petersen prefers to be out on the water alone, for months on end.

“It’s so lonely that it’s so un-lonely at the same time,” Petersen said. “I have to be constantly aware of my surroundings out there, and I’m constantly striving to see what I don’t see.”

Petersen describes his passion for sailing and his insatiable desire to see the world the same way he describes the Bahá’í Faith and its community: seeking nobility within himself and others and the recognition of humanity in everyone.

The youngest and second-most-widespread monotheistic religions of the world, the Bahá’í Faith was founded by Bahá’u’lláh in Iran in 1844. Its most principal theme according to Bahá’u’lláh’s message is “that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for humanity’s unification into one global society.”

The religion attempts to eradicate all prejudices—racial, religious, national, and economic—in the world, and espouses the belief that there is one God, and that all of humanity is one family.

If Van Ness had to describe the religion in one word, it’d be “unity,” and if described in a sentence, it would be “one earth, one mankind, and one citizen.”

Petersen is soft-spoken, with a shy and calming demeanor. Retired and recently turned 70, his blue eyes reveal a boyish curiosity and an enthusiastic nature. Wearing a pair of faded, baggy Levi’s and a plain white T-shirt, his aesthetic contrasts dramatically with the colorful and rich life he leads, his energy abundant.

Petersen credits his faith for pushing him to be actively engaged in his community, which extends much further than himself.

“I want to avoid being a body without any life in it,” he said. “Our true nature is spiritual; we give up the physical later.”

Prior to his exposure to the Bahá’í Faith, Petersen and his then wife, Judy, attended a Christian church but remained unconvinced.

Struggling to find a religion to help understand the world they were living in, Petersen remembers being particularly skeptical of two ubiquitous religious groups from the 70s including the Hare Krishnas, who according to Petersen, “shook their tambourines chanting with yellow robes asking for money,” and the cult-like religious group called the Unification Church, or the “Moonies,” led by Reverend Moon.

“I remember being frightened because all these other religious groups were having difficulties within their group,” said Petersen. “The Bahá’í Faith integrates understanding and being open with every religion because I can look at something and be able to recognize what’s happening; something that can be so subtle but with great importance.”

His oldest son, Brandon Petersen, also an adherent, welcomes him to his Wallingford home during the off-sailing winter season.

“I often took my dad for granted growing up,” said Brandon. “He wasn’t like the other dads; He raised us Bahá’í, but now I consider myself very lucky.”

A Washington State University alumni, Petersen graduated in 1966 with a degree in electrical engineering. He says he barely missed being drafted during the Vietnam War.

“I had only a year left at WSU, and they wanted to draft me and wasn’t going to let me finish my last year in college,” he said. “I was planning I’d be on the bus and end up in Vietnam for sure, but then I got out on medical deferment, and I was like ‘woah!’”

Petersen worked as an electrical engineer until his retirement at 65 years old, but is always looking for ways to improve his boat, making sure it’s in top-notch condition.

“I’m always solving all these problems on the boat like when the wind kicks up, or if the water pump quit, or maybe the engine died,” Petersen said. “When a sound on the boat changes–even a little bit–I become hyper aware...I’m striving to see what I don’t see.”

Another principle included in Bahá’í teachings is the fundamental harmony of science and religion, to which Petersen’s identity seemingly equates.

“I can’t describe Norm in three words--I’ll do nine,” said Jonathan Marshall, general manager at The Marco Polo Motel in Fremont, a fellow Bahá’í and Petersen’s closest friend. “He’s scientific in method, above average intelligence, and has a continuously expanding heart.”

Not an extrovert, Petersen’s passion in spreading the Bahá’í message was, according to Marshall, “a two-fold process.” As he became more engaged in social discourse, apart from the Bahá’í community, he began expanding his social circle.

“I have the whole world unto myself,” Petersen said . “I have my Bahá’í world that I live in, my activist world, my sailing world--they’re all interrelated but they’re all so separate at the same time.”

Family, friends, and his community do agree, however, that Petersen is the modern Renaissance man, and that his many identities reside within him: his heart in the Bahá’í Faith, his body sailing along the Puget Sound, and his spirit that leaves traces of gratitude, compassion, and wisdom.

For Petersen, however, he’s a simple guy dedicating his life to the Bahá’í Faith, and achieving his dream of living on a sailboat.

“I’ll admit I’m addicted to sailing and being on the boat,” said Petersen. “But more than anything I have an undying curiosity of how the world fits together; the Bahá’í Faith helps lead me where I need to go.”