A bio box for Norman Peters
Updated: 6 hours ago
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The WBJ Hall of Fame
WBJ Hall of Fame: Peters has been Worcester's quiet mover & shaker
photo | matt wright
Norman Peters played a key role in bringing the Red Sox's AAA minor league team to Worcester, just one highlight of his long career in the city.
By Livia Gershon
In May 2021, the Worcester Red Sox played their first game at the newly constructed Polar Park, even though a few years earlier, it looked like the team’s move from Rhode Island might not happen.
Norman Peters, owner of Worcester law firm Peters & Sowyrda, recalls Larry Lucchino, the late chairman of the team then known as the Pawtucket Red Sox, telling a group of Worcester leaders the city’s Achilles’ heel was the need to financially support the team with advertising revenue and other resources. To make the move, Lucchino said, they’d need at least eight major naming sponsors. So, Peters got to work soliciting local businesses.
“Instead of eight, we ended up with 21,” Peters said.
Later, when Peters ran into Lucchino at the team’s games, he said, 'I'd say, ‘Larry, how’s that Achilles’ heel?’ He’d turn and walk away.”
The successful recruitment of the WooSox is just one of the more recent examples of Peters’ work behind the scenes to promote development in Worcester.
“There are a lot of people in Worcester who do a lot of great things, and most of them are also good about telling you about the great things they do,” said Michael Angelini, partner in the Worcester office of Boston law firm Prince Lobel Tye. “Norm is more attentive to getting things done than he is to telling people what he’s accomplished.”
Peters has been part of Worcester’s business community since he was a child. His Albanian immigrant parents ran a real estate business, and he helped out until deciding to take a new path and become a lawyer. His initial plan was to leave Worcester, and he managed to get a job in Washington, D.C. Once he got there, he found himself walking the city’s streets feeling like he’d made a mistake.
“I felt lonely,” Peters said. “I didn’t know anybody. Whereas in Worcester I walk downtown and I know people.”
So he returned to his hometown, and he hasn’t looked back since. He found success as an attorney, participated in numerous real estate deals, became a political fundraiser, and even briefly ran a business representing athletes.
One of the moments he considers most significant came in 1990, when the state was considering removing funding from UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester as part of a budget-balancing effort. At the time, Peters said, around 80% of the school’s funding came from the state.
“It was a school in its infancy,” he said.
Peters had been an important fundraiser for then governor Bill Weld, so he was able to set up a meeting with the lieutenant governor and the school’s head, Aaron Lazare.
“After two hours, he had his budget back,” Peter said. “That was my first meeting with Aaron Lazare, and then he got me involved in every aspect of the medical school.”
Over the decades, Peters held various roles on the institution’s committees and fundraising groups, seeing it grow to become one of the city’s biggest employers.
Peters has been part of some other defining moments for the city.
He and business partner Herb Ingram developed the city’s first major residential condominium conversion project, at Executive House on Salisbury Street, in 1982. He was part of the development of Parkview Office Tower on Park Avenue, and the 68-unit Lynden House apartment building on Elm Street, among others.
From his positions on the boards of numerous local institutions, Peters also pushed for more engagement in city development. For example, Angelini said, Peters served as an important board member and advisor of the former Commerce Bank and Trust, headquartered in Worcester
“It’s fair to say he instigated Commerce’s investments in the city and financing of many projects for the city,” he said.
These days, Peters said, he’s still deeply engaged with activity in Worcester, though no longer as a developer in his own right.
“I’m not looking to make investments now, but I’m looking to be part of things and make things happen for the betterment of the community,” he said.
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