Tyler lived in Klamath Falls, Oregon during the first several years of his life with his mother, an elementary school teacher.  However, many summers during those first years of his childhood were spent at the farm of his maternal grandparents, Albert and Marie (Nielson) Peterson, in Jamesville township just southwest of Midway in Yankton County, South Dakota.  His older cousin Judy, also resident with her parents in Klamath Falls, was a constant companion during those summers. 

 

Following his mother's marriage in Klamath Falls to Vernon Knuth, the family moved to Winchester Bay on the Oregon coast, where Tyler developed a love for the sea and for fishing, working regularly as he grew up with his step-father Vern on the family charter fishing boat.