12/30/2025
Peter Van Pelt
Peter Van Pelt passed away on December 25, 2025 at the age of 93. He was born in Chicago on June 28, 1932 to John Robert Van Pelt, Jr. and Frances Church Van Pelt. He attended grade school in Chicago and Winnetka, Illinois. The family then moved to Worthington, Ohio, where as an eighth-grader Peter proceeded to the Central Ohio finals in the national spelling bee. There he misspelled one of the shortest words of the day, “nickel,” and was eliminated. He preferred dimes forever after. He attended Western Reserve Academy where he graduated cm laude, and Swarthmore College where he scraped through with a degree in economics. In December 1954 he married Patricia Bryson, a Swarthmore classmate, who at the beginning of their senior year had said to him, “So when are we going to get married?” Her initiative saved him a lot of trouble. They had three children: John, Susan and Lisken, each of whom, he said, is more special than the others.
Peter served in the Counter Intelligence Corps of the U.S. Army in France and Germany in 1955-56, and developed a taste for foreign living. Patricia, whose formative years were spent in England, already had that bug. Peter worked for The Quaker Oats Company and Colgate-Palmolive about six years each, in the U.S., Costa Rica, Venezuela and England.
He then discovered management consulting, and worked twelve years for Cresap, McCormick and Paget in the U.S., Mexico and London, serving a variety of clients in many countries. Toward the end of that period, he concentrated on clients in the Middle East, and this was followed by three years living in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, where he ran a Saudi trading business. Throughout these moves, Patricia managed the household with consummate aplomb and delivered their three children in three different countries: England, Texas and Venezuela.
Peter and Patricia retired to Eagle Harbor, Michigan, in 1990, and built a home on the shores of Lake Superior. He became active in several nonprofits including serving as president of Keweenaw County Historical Society, chairman of Calumet Theatre Company, and executive director of Pine Mountain Music Festival. In 2004 he received a Certificate of Professional Achievement in Non-Profit Management at Kellogg School, Northwestern University. In 2009, Finlandia University in Hancock, Michigan awarded him an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters.
After moving to Northampton, Massachusetts in 2013, he joined the boards of the Lathrop Community and Valley Classical Concerts, supporting the vibrant campus of Lathrop and advancing the love of music.
Peter suffered from the belief that language matters. He was an instinctive proofreader and groaned audibly if he saw the possessive “its” with an apostrophe. His eyes could tear up over a particularly well-written sentence. Unlike the man in Colorado whose obituary said he liked “old cars, dogs, cats and fart jokes,” Peter liked good writing, classical music, a positive bottom line, and the company of intelligent, accomplished women.
Speaking of intelligent, accomplished women, Peter was predeceased by his incomparable wife, Patricia, with whom he enjoyed 64 years of near-blissful and intellectually stimulating marriage. He leaves their three children and their spouses and offspring and a cluttered desk.
Peter was also predeceased by sister Ellen Morgan Van Pelt and nephew Martin Van Pelt, and is survived by his brother Richard Van Pelt. He leaves his children John (Marsh Richards), Susan Petry (Richard), and Lisken Dus (Robert); grandchildren Alexis Casby (James), Jamie Clark (Michael), Emma Van Pelt (Chaz Logue), and Lyle and William Petry; four great-grandchildren, Liam, Finley, Jack, and Olive; and extended family through son-in-law Bob Dus, including Bob’s youngest, Daniel, who with his siblings and all their offspring hold their Grandpa Peter dear. He also leaves nieces and nephews Cath, Stefanie, Sarah, Tom, Jim and their offspring.
In the summer of 2012, Peter and Patricia toured the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and saw a wall of six portraits by Rembrandt, all men, all unnamed. This led Patricia to say to Peter, “You should write your obituary, so when you are gone you won’t be lost and nameless, like those men in the Rembrandt portraits.” So he did, including it at the end of his published memoir “The Story of My Life (so far).” This, with after-the-fact additions by the family, is it.
John, Susan, and Lisken add: we love and miss Daddy deeply. His legacy of gentle principle, decency, and wit lives on in our hearts, and in our desire for a world where language, humor, kindness, and music matter. A memorial gathering will be scheduled at a later date. In lieu of flowers, contributions to organizations Peter admired and supported are appreciated: the Lathrop Community, Keweenaw County Historical Society, and Valley Classical Concerts.
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