Peter C. Haskell ’61 died on November 15, 2014, in Seattle, Washington.

(The following is a family-provided account:)

Peter Carvill Haskell, Bowdoin class of 1961, died November 15, 2014 in Seattle after a 30-year fight with Parkinson’s disease.

Peter’s son Benjamin Lincoln Haskell, a fire-fighter in Seattle, led a Memorial Service at Anthony’s Seaside restaurant in Seattle for his father. Peter’s Twin siblings, Mercy Warren Wheeler and Henry Morgan Haskell ’56 spoke in tribute to their brother.

Born on February 9, 1939, Peter prepared for Bowdoin at Plainfield High School in Moosup, Connecticut and Tabor Academy. He majored in Government at Bowdoin, was a member of Alpha Delta Phi, the glee club and earned his ROTC commission. Immediately upon graduating, Peter and his classmate, Fran Fuller ’61, were summer-caretakers at Admiral Peary’s Eagle Island off the coast of Maine.

In 1962, Peter and three Bowdoin classmates headed west to attend the Seattle World’s Fair. They never reached it. as they were forced off the road by a drunk-driver in a tragic automobile accident in South Dakota, Sid Woolocott, Bowdoin ’61, was killed. In the aftermath, Peter married Sid’s wife, June, and adopted Sid, Jr.

Peter’s son, Ben, was born in Nuremberg, Germany in 1964 where Peter was serving as a lieutenant in US Army Intelligence. Both Peter and his wife, June, had learned Italian at the US Army Language School in California and later learned German when Peter was sent to Germany. He served in Germany on the Czech border for four years.  Realizing his lifelong love of books could translate to a career, he earned a master’s degree in library science at Rutgers University in 1967.

His first library job was at Cornell University, moving on to assistant librarian at Colgate University. From Colgate he was accepted into a national library internship exchange position at Indiana University for a year, and edited a book called, Sign Systems for Libraries, after which he landed a job as director of libraries at Franklin and Marshall College in Lancaster, PA. At F&M he spearheaded design and construction of a new library, but left in the early 1980s when he first experienced early tremors that ultimately resulted in his being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.

He moved to Houston, Texas and joined his second wife, Edit, in business, leading seminars for corporations in organizational dynamics, notwithstanding his having Parkinson’s disease. He also got involved in EST training, which suited his natural inclination to dream big and focus on self-improvement.

He earned his second master’s degree at Pepperdine University in organizational development, and continued designing workshops, using collage-building as a tool for people to create a vision for their future. Although he struggled to deliver the workshop in his later years, he considered this to be his greatest achievement, as it was wholly his own, combining years of knowledge and insight he had gained through school, research, and his own observations.

Peter was an avid hiker. Both alone and later with his son, Ben, Peter completed more than three hundred sixty-five miles of the Pacific Crest Trail—made famous by the best-selling book and upcoming movie, WILD by Carol Strayed. Peter was in his mid-60s and had had Parkinson’s disease for many years when he hiked this arduous trail in 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005, and 2006.

Peter’s father, Henry C. Haskell ’18 established Bowdoin’s Henry C. Haskell Library Fund as an unofficial tribute to his son and to Peter’s keen interest in reading and libraries. This fund was established following the sale of the Haskell home in Brunswick at 72 Federal Street—the location of the first woman’s dormitory at Bowdoin in 1971.