Barbara Lorraine Canda-Peterson

Barbara Lorraine Canda-Peterson (Barb) was born in Portland, OR on May 5, 1960, she became the third sibling after Sharon Kay and Michael Terry Canda to the parents of Julius and Ethel (Dotty) Canda. They first lived in an apartment building just south of North Russell Street on Vancouver Avenue and in 1962 moved to the Canda family home at 4806 N Gantenbein Avenue.

Barb, like her siblings, was part of Portland Public Schools Desegregation Program which was an attempt to diversify classrooms throughout the City of Portland.  As a result, instead of attending her neighborhood elementary school Humboldt which was 150 feet from the front door of the Canda residence, she along with many others were bused across the city to Daniel Alexander Grout Elementary School located at SE 31st and Holgate for her entire K-8 education.  After 8th grade our parents had to petition the school district to allow her to return to her neighborhood high school to become a Jefferson Democrat.

From the first moment Barb walked into the doors of Jefferson High School she had big shoes to fill, and it would take everything from her 5’2 104-pound frame and 3.5 GPA to master the basketball court and the track and field.  Her big sister Sharon was among track & field and volleyball royalty who would become an Olympic hopeful and had a room full of ribbons, medals, trophies and news articals to prove it.  Her big brother Michael would soon enter the world stage in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do, so gifted in the art that he would as a brown belt be awarded his first Black Belt by the Korean Government at the Pan-American Games in Soule, Korea after he defeated numerous Black Belt fighters and was crowned as Grand Champion.  

Barb would go on to compete successfully in basketball and track & Field to also, as her big sister Sharon who was the first female athlete in the history of Jefferson High School to win the coveted Hopkins Jenkins award for her sports and academic success.  Barb averaged 19 points per game and was named to the PIL All-League Team and All-City Team in basketball.  In Track & Field she qualified for the State Track Meet in the long jump, the 400 meters and the 440 relay.  In an Oregonian interview on January 3, 1978, featured with her picture in the Prep section the caption read; “Jeff star better in basketball prefers the individuality of track.”  Barb stated, “I started out this year in a guard position, but in practices I was getting so many rebounds, I moved to forward,” Canda said. “I make up for my height with my jumping.”  My lack of size affects my high jump some – at 5-2 I have trouble jumping five feet – but I still prefer track to basketball.” “I guess it’s strange,” continued Canda, “because I’m really better at basketball, but I like the individual successes of track better than the team wins in basketball.”  Barb would go on to receive a full-ride scholarship just like her sister Sharon to Willamette University in Salem where she earned her Psychology/Sociology degree from September 1978 to June 1982.

Barb met Ray Petterson in the early 80s and took his hand in marriage.  Together, they owned two convenience stores in N/NE Portland and engaged in many other business ventures.  Barb remained married to Ray until his passing.

Barb met John Walker in the late 1980’s when they both worked for the City of Portland. Their daughter, Michelle, was born on September 9, 1988. Barb and Michael Thomas Fields Scott met in 1990, and he was credited with a passion for cooking and his love of soccer; Barb helped Mike raise his two children Anna and Iain and they were together for nearly 35 years until his passing in 2021. During the last few years of Barb’s life, Robert Ralston also became a trusted friend and partner.

The work Barb did with the VOA was incredibly important to her, and those experiences were among the most meaningful of her life.

After experiencing a brief incarceration at Coffee Creek, the VOA was the first employer to take a chance on her. They saw her value, and they offered her the chance to help women in ways she was helped in her times of need.  Barb was fulfilled by her career, and it’s her coworkers and clients that will carry on her legacy going forward.

Barb is preceded in death by her husband Ray Petterson, parents Julius and Ethel Canda, Mike Scott and her big sister Sharon Kay Canda.  She is survived by her daughter Michelle, her big brother Michael and little brother John as well as nieces, nephews and cousins. 

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