Peter Hollister Vogel died June 21, 2005, after fighting a blood disorder for many years. He died quickly and with dignity, as he’d hoped, while giving his children time to say goodbye. Peter and his wife Neva, who died in 1999, lived in Coupeville for 17 years. Previously they resided in Wenatchee, Kent, Port Angeles and California. Peter consulted as a civil engineer until he retired on his eighty-eighth birthday and moved to Seattle to be closer to his children.

Born in Japan to missionary-architect parents on July 12, 1916, Peter lived an adventurous life.  When Peter was 10 years old, his family moved from Shanghai to Beaux Arts; the forests and waterways of the sparsely settled eastside of Lake Washington became his playground. He had a passion for music which expressed itself in piano playing and whistling, as well as playing horn in the university marching band and listening to records, the symphony and the opera. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Washington in Forestry. In college, he worked summers in the CCC’s and the Forest Service. After spending WWII in the Pacific with the Army Engineers, he built his own fishing boat, worked on survey crews across the Cascades, returned to the University of Washington and earned a B.S. in Civil Engineering.

He met and married Neva Rae Moore in 1950 and together they raised six children:  Peter, Helen, Ruth, Timothy, John, and Valerie. Peter never lost his love of the mountains and took his children on countless camping and hiking expeditions. One of the more memorable of these was the Hughes Creek expedition, which spanned many years and required ingenuity and persistence.

Peter was a lifelong student, later earning a M.S. in Civil Engineering from Stanford University and Ph.D in Civil Engineering from the University of Washington. During his long and productive career, Peter made contributions in both the private and public sector. Many of the buildings and public works he designed are still in use. He was an avid reader, contemplative thinker and prolific writer. From the coffee shop barista who he tutored in algebra to his five grandchildren who he teased with math puzzles, Peter made a quiet and lasting impression on all who knew him.  We’ll miss you Dad!

A memorial for Peter takes place Sunday, August 14 from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Pavilion in the Coupeville Town Park. For more information please call 206-523-2328.  In lieu of flowers, contributions are suggested to go to the Coupeville Library or the Senior Center Thrift Shop in Freeland.