Cortez Peters Jr.

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Cortez W. Peters, Jr., (ca. 1926 – June 24, 1993) was an American world-champion typist. Peters began typing at the age of 12, and won twelve typing contests.

Peters set a typing world record of 225 wpm (net) when timed for one minute, with a top finger speed of almost 300 wpm. He used a special competition keyboarding method which he jointly developed with his father.

His father, Cortez Peters, Sr., opened Cortez Peters business schools in Washington D.C., Baltimore, and Chicago after his son set a record of typing more than 99 words a minute in competition while wearing mittens. The schools were the first black-owned schools in the field, and during their tenure trained an estimated 45,000 students.

He married his wife, Mildred Smith, circa 1948.

Following the schools' closure in the mid-1970s, the younger Peters began writing textbooks and became a consultant for commercial education programs. He evidently served as a school administrator.

Peters died on June 24, 1993 from a heart attack in Columbia, Missouri, where he had been conducting a seminar on typing, shorthand and other clerical skills.