[3][4] His father worked as a laborer and later as a manager for the police department for the city of Wichita while his mother acted as a homemaker.

[5] There he earned a degree in English and psychology, while graduating magna cum laude with a focus in 19th century British literature.

[7] While at Dartmouth he was responsible for the largest administrative body of the school, and held an academic appointment in the Department of English.

[1] The school built two new buildings, Ford Hall and Kaneko Commons, and purchased several others adjacent to the campus in downtown Salem, and raised $131 million in a fund-raising campaign.

[1] At the end of the 2010 academic year Pelton left to take the same position at Emerson College in Massachusetts,[1] replaced at Willamette by Stephen E.

The purchase and recent renovation of the historic Emerson Colonial Theatre, which hosted the first performances of Porgy and Bess (1935) and Oklahoma!

[15] Emerson College has acquired or redeveloped several buildings to expand the institution’s footprint as outlined in Pelton's vision.

[28] He was married to Marlys Miller from 1974 to 1981, Kristen Wilson from 1981 to 2005, and to Carol (Leslie) Pelton, manager of the Oregon Cultural Trust from 2006 to 2008.