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Col. David Merritt Peters was a U.S. Army officer who served on nonprofit boards dedicated to Hawaiian culture, child welfare and military affairs. He was a trustee of Liliʻuokalani Trust from 1978 to 2007.

Col. David Merritt Peters was born in Honolulu on Aug. 6, 1923, the firstborn to parents Charles Merritt Peters and Mollie Kananipauole Akana. He had a sister Ione and brother Charles. 

­­­­In 1953, he married Joan Sabin; she passed away in 1986. Peters married Mary Melekahana Awai Kapaona in 1989. He was the father of six children Shane, Wade, Keven, Nani, Diane and Lauren

As a youth, he was a gifted public speaker and student president of his junior and senior classes at Maui High School. He also attended Kamehameha School for Boys on Oʻahu until 7th grade.

Peters also was the first person from Maui to join the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, from which he graduated in 1946 with an engineering degree.  

After the academy, he was commissioned at Fort Benning, Ga., as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army and served 30 years in the military. His tours of duties included Vietnam as a member of the elite Special Forces; West Germany during the Cold War; South Korea, where he was an Airborne Infantry Officer during the Korean War; Japan as a platoon leader; and Belgium as a NATO commander. At the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, David taught military science and was commander of the UH Reserve Officers Training Corps.

He retired from the military in 1976 as a Colonel.

The latter part of his career was as an executive assistant for U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, with whom he worked from 1976 to 1990.

As a trustee of Liliʻuokalani Trust from 1978 to 2007, new locations opened on the Neighbor Islands, and families on Kauaʻi were supported after Hurricane Iniki passed through the Islands in 1992.

It was during this period when he co-founded the nonprofit group Alu Like to serve Native Hawaiians.

Peters received numerous honors in his lifetime. From the U.S. military: the Silver Star, Bronze Stars and the Legions of Merit. From Hawaiʻi nonprofits he received: the Hawaiʻi Army Museum Ihe award, the Royal Order of Ke Aliʻi Pauahi, and the “Cultural Living Treasure” award from the Prince Kūhio Hawaiian Civic Club.

In addition to serving as chairman of Liliʻuokalani Trust, he was a member of executive boards, including the Shriner's Hospital for Children, Elks Club, Hawaiʻi Army Museum, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs Education Foundation, Rotary Club and Scottish Rite Mason.

Peters died on Nov. 25, 2012, in Honolulu.