A Seattle native, Peringer is vice president of marketing/sale for Process Heating Co., a manufacturer in the Sodo industrial area south of downtown Seattle. In 1992, Peringer founded the Sodo Business Association to represent 2,000 businesses and 50,000 employees in Sodo. As president of the group, Peringer founded Artworks to help clean the area and remove graffiti. More than 5,000 youngsters, many of them at-risk, have gone through the program.

Peringer wrote Good Kids: The Story of ArtWorks, and all proceeds go to the program. He’s also published Lifeline to the Yukon, a history of the Yukon River.