William Wesley Peters; Renowned Architect

William Wesley Peters, an architect who was considered “Frank Lloyd Wright’s right arm” and was formerly married to Wright’s daughter and to the daughter of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, died Wednesday. He was 79.

Peters, who died of a stroke in a Madison, Wis., hospital, was chairman of the board of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation and senior architect, planner and vice president of Taliesin Architects Ltd., Wright’s design company.

Although perhaps better known for his marriages to the daughters of Wright and Stalin, who were both named Svetlana, Peters was a famous architect in his own right.

He served as structural engineer for many of Wright’s most celebrated buildings, including New York’s Guggenheim Museum. Among other projects, he also assisted Wright in building the Marin County Government Center in San Rafael.

A registered architect in 50 states, Peters personally designed 120 projects, including such international showplaces as the Pahlavi family’s Pearl Palace in Iran.

A native of Terre Haute, Ind., Peters studied at Evansville College in Indiana and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology before he became Wright’s first apprentice in the Taliesin Fellowship. The program was established by Wright at his home, Taliesin, near Spring Green, Wis., and included a resident staff of architects and apprentices there and at Taliesin West near Phoenix.

Peters married Wright’s daughter, Svetlana, in 1935, and the couple had two sons, Daniel and Brandoch. Mrs. Peters and Daniel died in an auto accident in 1946.

Peters was introduced to Stalin’s daughter, Svetlana Alliluyeva, in 1970 when his former mother-in-law and Wright’s widow, Olgivanna, invited her to visit Taliesin West. Peters and Alliluyeva, who had defected to the United States, were married 20 days later. They had one child, Olga.

Peters’ second wife left him after a year, claiming she could not endure the communal living in the Taliesin educational compound. Peters obtained a divorce in 1973.

He is survived by his son and daughter and his sister, Margedant, wife of former U.S. Sen. S. I. Hayakawa.

The family asked that any charitable donations be made to the William Wesley Peters Scholarship fund at the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.