John Earle Petersen [5 May 1940 – 4 April 2012], after a career that established him as “the dean of municipal finance,” taught public policy at Georgie Mason University (2002-2012). With a bachelor’s degree in economics from Northwestern University (1962) and the MBA (1964) and Ph.D. in economics (1968), both from the University of Pennsylvania, his career progressed from the Federal Reserve Board (1968-1970), the Securities Industry Association (1970-1973), and the National Governors Association (1976-1977) to director of the Government Finance Research Center at the Government Finance Officers Association (1973-1976; 1977-1991), and then to establish a financial advisory firm (Government Finance Group, 1992-2002). He was elected to the Fairfax City Council in 1972 for one term and was a public member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (2011-2012). His publications around the NYC financial crisis include The Rating Game (1974), Building a Broader Market (1976), and Disclosure Guidelines for State and Local Government Securities (1976 and four revisions), followed by many other works such as Subnational Capital Markets in Developing Countries (2004).