In one production (in which he went against the grain to play a villain), he wore a black patch over one eye, to set the "bad man" theme.

After racing upstairs during a lull in the performance, he played a couple more quick hands — but forgot to pull the patch back down over his eye when he dashed back on stage.

He noted that once he asked Peterson how he kept track of all of his grandchildren. "Do you really know all their names and birthdays?" he asked.

Peterson replied, "Yes . . . because each one of them is special." Melich, who said she was still confronting the realization that Peterson will never again perform on the PTC stage, noted that he was Utah's theatrical king.

"There was nothing 'ordinary' about his decades-long career," she said.

Morey, noting the hundreds of tributes whichthat have poured in to the theater after Peterson's death became known, said "Bob was an artist — and this is a word I take seriously. He grew and stretched himself in every show."

Recounting some memorable "Bob Peterson moments," he told of one performance of "A Little Night Music" when the wheel fell off a cart.

Ad-libbing, Peterson quickly said, "they don't make 'em like they used to."

The same thing could be said about Peterson himself.

Scott Peterson, his eldest son, spoke briefly on behalf of the family, noting that his dad was not only a hero on stage but at home, too.

He told of a time in Chicago when "Camelot" was on tour, and Peterson and three other actors happened to see a robbery taking place. The next day there was a story in the Chicago papers about a "Lancelot" trying to chase down the robbers.

Those taking part in the memorial service left the event realizing that there was a little bit of Lancelot . . . and Don Quixote . . . and the fatherly Tevye of "Fiddler on the Roof" in Robert Peterson, the man and the actor.

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E-mail: ivan@desnews.com