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Paul Peterzell '58 was honored early this month as volunteer of the year by Marin County, California. Peterzell, who has volunteered for more than a decade as a mediator in the district attorney's office, works with six other volunteers in the office to resolve disputes between consumers and businesses there. A government major while at Hamilton and member of the Squires, Peterzell went on to get a master's degree in journalism at Columbia.

"We are most proud of the work the volunteers and the paid staff accomplish together," said Joan Brown, the county's veteran volunteer and employee programs manager. Since 1979, she added, the volunteer program has provided services valued at $99 million. Peterzell was praised as a talented and trusted mediator who was a joy to work with and employed remarkable skills to resolve disputes. Also on hand at the ceremony were two other Hamiltonians, Joseph Spaeth '61, public defender of Marin County, and Kevin O'Hara '87, a Marin County deputy district attorney.

Peterzell, 73, said serving the county was fulfilling. "It is an honor to be able to help people, because there are a lot of people in the community who need help," he said. "This is the perfect place to be." A former reporter for the Marin Independent Journal, he said the only downside of volunteering 20 hours a week in the DA's consumer protection division was the lack of pay, but quipped that colleagues say he's "worth every penny."

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