William Wesley Peters was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, and educated at Evansville College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Peters was Frank Lloyd Wright鈥檚 first apprentice, beginning in 1932, and spent most of the remainder of his career serving as Wright鈥檚 structural engineer and project architect. He worked on many of Wright鈥檚 most notable designs including the Guggenheim Museum, the Johnson Wax Administration building and research tower, and Fallingwater. Following Wright鈥檚 death in 1959, Peters succeeded him as chairman of Taliesin Associates Architects and he later became chair of the Wright Foundation. Peters was registered to practice in all fifty states and designed many works including several schools, hotels, churches, banks, shops and residences. He also taught at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, and lectured and wrote about Wright鈥檚 work and contemporary architecture. Peters first married Wright鈥檚 stepdaughter Svetlana, who died tragically in an automobile accident in 1946. Later in 1972 he was married for a brief period to Svetlana Alliluyeva, the daughter of Joseph Stalin, who had defected from the Soviet Union. William Wesley Peters died in 1991 at the age of 79.

Biography courtesy of听

Work credited to Peters while working with Frank Lloyd Wright include: assisting听in the construction of听Fallingwater听and the听Johnson Wax administration building and the structural designs of the Guggenheim Museum and the laboratory tower at Johnson Wax, among many other projects. Peters and听Taliesin Associates听are credited with the design for the听Kaden Tower in Louisville, Kentucky the听San Jose Center for the Performing Arts in San Jose, California, and the听Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall in Sarasota, Florida. Peters also designed the听Pearl Palace in Iran.

The New York Times,听July 18, 1991.