Peter Wayne Gustafson
Obituary

Peter Wayne Gustafson (Pete), born August 9, 1952, in Chicago, Illinois, passed away on October 17, 2026, in Rancho Santa Margarita, California.

Pete grew up in Huntington Beach, where the ocean made a surfer out of him in his younger years, and the beach made a nudist out of him for life. He answered a different kind of call in October 1970, joining the Army's 101st Airborne Division. Trained as an air traffic controller, he was instead posted as a guard at an airfield in Vietnam, where he was injured in a strike. He served until August 1973. The years stood in noticeable contrast to one of his two firm life rules: "I'm allergic to hard, physical labor." (The other: "I fear warm beer." Both were non-negotiable.) After his service, he brought that same sharp, reliable focus to a civilian career as an air traffic controller and later as a California Highway Patrolman. And then there was the sky. A pilot, a member of the Civil Air Patrol, Pete flew friends and family, soaring over the mountain tops. He took his sons camping, fishing, and snow skiing every year, passing on his love for nature and the outdoors to his four sons.

But what Pete really did best was be Pete. He was the man who could walk into a room, learn your name, and two conversations later cite a detail about your summer or your dog as though he'd known you for a decade. He was the kind of person who made everyone feel like an old friend. In his later years, he lived exactly as he preferred: a ten-minute walk from his granddaughters, with unhurried walks around the Rancho Santa Margarita lake on his own time. He would settle onto bench after bench, eventually making his way to The Blind Pig, where he claimed his usual seat overlooking the water, enjoyed his single happy hour beer, then hit the same benches on the walk home, making sure to talk to friends old and new. He was a creature of habit, and he kept that routine through the pandemic and the lockdowns.

Pete is survived by his sons Chris (Callan) Gustafson and Chris' daughters Ava and Alexis; Derek Gustafson; and Steve (Justine) Gustafson. He is preceded in death by his parents, Clarence and Stephanie, his twin brother Paul, his sister Barbara, and his son Ryan. We like to think they're all together, with a seat already saved.