Gary Petersen, ’87, ’93
Chairman, Cornerstone Bank
Term: 2025-2028
Finance and Investment Committee
Why I Serve on the Board of Directors
It is a privilege and honor to give back to UND, which has provided so many opportunities to be successful for me and many of my family members in work and life. UND is well-positioned for the future and I’m hopeful to contribute to the vision of growth and academic excellence.
How I Provide Opportunities
Several years ago, my siblings and I established the Darold and Adella Petersen Endowment with UND to recognize our parents’ commitment to our education, all at UND. That endowment has helped a number of entering UND students financially. It has been a pleasure watching many of those students achieve success academically and in their later endeavors.
At Cornerstone Bank, as an owner and where I serve as Chairman of the Board, we provide opportunities every day for our customers to be successful. In starting a new business or expanding an existing one, in both metro and agricultural venues, or buying a first home or a new car. Also, at Cornerstone Bank, one of our values is We Value Our Role As Neighbors and Contributors. I’m pleased that our organization gives back to very worthy charitable organizations and that our team contributes hundreds of hours of volunteer work to the communities where we live and do business.
In My Free Time, I ...
... mostly enjoy spending time with family and friends and traveling with my wife, Nancy. We were blessed with our first grandchild and so finding reasons to spend time with him has been a priority!
My Favorite UND Memory
Of course, meeting my future wife, Nancy, at UND was life-changing. I have easily been the beneficiary of our partnership through the years. I attribute any success I have had to her and being her husband. And the birth of our first child while I attended law school at UND is stamped in my memory of those days.
I have many academic memories from UND. What is indelible, and probably unusual given my business degree background, is the UND Writer’s Conference. I so relish memories of seeing, meeting and rubbing elbows with celebrated writers and poets from across the country and the world. Nobel Prize, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winners were abundant. Larry McMurtry, Alex Haley, Norman Mailer, Raymond Carver, Louise Erdrich, Joseph Brodsky, Ntozake Shange and Ken Kesey all come to mind. Pretty heady stuff for a small-town North Dakota kid.