Shortly after I moved to Wheat Ridge, Peter and I served on the city elections commission. Back in that day Peter and I and a third commission member helped the city clerk oversee a complicated and contentious election. In the process we had lots of discussions about Wheat Ridge political culture and the theory and mechanics of voting. Peter's views always leaned toward acceptance of the voting majority as the manifest will of the people regardless of, and apparently without judging too harshly, the potential policy consequences of elections in a time of "populist" anger. On the other hand, he seemed not to relish dysfunctional division in the body politic and gave considerable thought to ways to mitigate it. In the matter of voting, he tended to favor multi-level systems that avoid forced binary choices and allow even second or third preferences to count significantly in the final tally. This is a sophisticated view of electoral choice that few polities on earth have the wherewithal to implement. Peter also, for a time, engaged himself in a project of making a killer web site to serve as a universally accepted public square for our small suburb, which to this day has a big void in the space where one usually finds open, ethical and professional news media. The web site "Wheat Ridge Matters" (Was that the working title?) never saw daylight on the internet, but I was impressed by the vision of a unifying platform that epitomized Peter's marriage of skills and insight to a humanistic outlook. That vision, which he deployed in many other conversations that we shared, is what I valued in Peter's friendship. It's also what is now so painfully gone.
I met Peter a handful of times and he was always lovably snarky. One of my favorite personalities. I hope he’s giving someone, somewhere grief right now. ❤️
I remember when I go was going through a really rough time in high school, and Peter let me come and stay with him for my spring break. My car ended up breaking down in the middle of rush hour traffic in Seattle and Peter drove me halfway back to Corvallis to meet up with my mom. He wasn't the best at expressing his feelings, at least not the sweeter/softer ones, but he was a very kind-hearted person and I always knew he loved and supported me even though we rarely saw each other.
#2A great loss —
Timothy B. Weston2019-09-01 23:55
As Peter's nephew (Milly's brother Charlie's stepson), I would simply like to recall him as a man with a mischievous and friendly sparkle in his eye. I enjoyed his company, which I shared too little of over the years, and join with Milly, Leela and the rest of the family in mourning his death. I will miss him.
#1Valuable Colleague and Dear Friend —
Verne Morland2019-08-27 20:58
. Peter and I started working together 24 years ago in May 1995 when I joined the Organization Development group in NCR's Professional Services Division. He was our guru in all matters related to technology and the then-nascent idea of virtual communities of practice. As I looked back over our correspondence I was surprised to see that Peter and I worked together for only the next three years, but in that time I gained an enormous respect for both his intellect and his character and I felt privileged to become, over time, one of his intellectual sparring partners, aka friends.
Peter loved books. He bought large numbers of them and once he sent me a box of some of his recent reads for which he had no shelf space. I was impressed by the range of his interests and the originality of his thinking. There were books on technology, philosophy, sociology, politics - even sculpture and type fonts! One subject Peter and I both loved was the visual presentation of information (data visualization) and one of his favorite authorities on that subject was Edward Tufte.
Peter was known to many for his incisive and penetrating critiques, but I also saw and appreciated the humanity with which he tempered his analysis and his recommendations. He was generous with his time and effort and despite his sometimes crusty presentation he was quite sensitive to others feelings and never intentionally caused hurt.
It is often said of very smart people that they "do not suffer fools gladly" and Peter could certainly be impatient with people when their thought process was sloppy, superficial, or entirely absent. But when someone was genuinely trying and asked for help, Peter was remarkably long-suffering and supportive.
Like most great thinkers, Peter appreciated the principle of Occam's razor: that the simplest explanation is usually the best. That said, he also saw the danger of oversimplification and even registered the domain name: ButNoSimpler.org. In fact, the domain that he held for many years - Macramedia.net - had five subordinate domains which he explained as follows.
Quote:
The Domains of Macramedia
Macramedia.net: One net to rule the orgs, one net to find them, one net to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.
Macramedia: One org for the work of the artist. Makerspacing: One org for the art of the worker. On Till Morning: One org for the life of the artist. But No Simpler: One org for the thoughts of the artist (particularly thoughts on thought). Wheat Ridge Matters: And one org for somethings totally different. ... Well, perhaps not totally different.
As his summary of those websites suggests, Peter thought of himself as an artist and he expressed his art through various media. He liked the worker-as-artist aspect of large metal sculptures, but even as a mathematician and computer programmer, he was an artist - or perhaps better, an artiste. He loved the programming language "perl" (never capitalized) with its use of "regular expressions" because he could do so much with so little code. A 20-line program was verbose, 10 lines was better, and 5 lines better still. He occasionally got it down to a single line - like a UNIX system command line.
In recent years Peter's health had deteriorated and the last time I spoke with him two days before his death he told me that his medications, both for the Parkinsons and the pain, were not effective. While I am deeply saddened by his tragic end, I am consoled by the fact that he is no longer struggling with his illness. As I said in a note to Milly, Peter was brilliant and truly sui generis. His passing reminds me of that famous line spoken by Hamlet about his father: "He was a man, take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again."
When I encounter a tough problem in any domain and need a stimulating sounding board, I will think of Peter. When I read an article about any of the most pressing and dark challenges of our time and need a fresh perspective, I will think of Peter. When I despair that our present leadership is doing too little, too late and need some reassurance that some solutions still exist and that mankind can be saved, I will think of Peter.
Light a Candle
Comments
Peter and I started working together 24 years ago in May 1995 when I joined the Organization Development group in NCR's Professional Services Division. He was our guru in all matters related to technology and the then-nascent idea of virtual communities of practice. As I looked back over our correspondence I was surprised to see that Peter and I worked together for only the next three years, but in that time I gained an enormous respect for both his intellect and his character and I felt privileged to become, over time, one of his intellectual sparring partners, aka friends.
Peter loved books. He bought large numbers of them and once he sent me a box of some of his recent reads for which he had no shelf space. I was impressed by the range of his interests and the originality of his thinking. There were books on technology, philosophy, sociology, politics - even sculpture and type fonts! One subject Peter and I both loved was the visual presentation of information (data visualization) and one of his favorite authorities on that subject was Edward Tufte.
Peter was known to many for his incisive and penetrating critiques, but I also saw and appreciated the humanity with which he tempered his analysis and his recommendations . He was generous with his time and effort and despite his sometimes crusty presentation he was quite sensitive to others feelings and never intentionally caused hurt.
It is often said of very smart people that they "do not suffer fools gladly" and Peter could certainly be impatient with people when their thought process was sloppy, superficial, or entirely absent. But when someone was genuinely trying and asked for help, Peter was remarkably long-suffering and supportive.
Like most great thinkers, Peter appreciated the principle of Occam's razor: that the simplest explanation is usually the best. That said, he also saw the danger of oversimplificat ion and even registered the domain name: ButNoSimpler.or g. In fact, the domain that he held for many years - Macramedia.net - had five subordinate domains which he explained as follows.
Quote:As his summary of those websites suggests, Peter thought of himself as an artist and he expressed his art through various media. He liked the worker-as-artis t aspect of large metal sculptures, but even as a mathematician and computer programmer, he was an artist - or perhaps better, an artiste. He loved the programming language "perl" (never capitalized) with its use of "regular expressions" because he could do so much with so little code. A 20-line program was verbose, 10 lines was better, and 5 lines better still. He occasionally got it down to a single line - like a UNIX system command line.
In recent years Peter's health had deteriorated and the last time I spoke with him two days before his death he told me that his medications, both for the Parkinsons and the pain, were not effective. While I am deeply saddened by his tragic end, I am consoled by the fact that he is no longer struggling with his illness. As I said in a note to Milly, Peter was brilliant and truly sui generis. His passing reminds me of that famous line spoken by Hamlet about his father: "He was a man, take him for all in all. I shall not look upon his like again."
When I encounter a tough problem in any domain and need a stimulating sounding board, I will think of Peter. When I read an article about any of the most pressing and dark challenges of our time and need a fresh perspective, I will think of Peter. When I despair that our present leadership is doing too little, too late and need some reassurance that some solutions still exist and that mankind can be saved, I will think of Peter.
And I will miss him.