Deceased March 30, 2021
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In Memory
It is with sadness that the class of ’79 notes the sudden passing of John Peter Mitchell of Brookline, Mass., and Warren, Vt., on March 30, 2021. Peter joined us at Amherst from his hometown of Winchester, Mass., rooming in Stearns freshman year with his high school classmate Phil Simmons ’80 (who, sadly, died of ALS in 2002). Peter spent his junior year abroad at the University of Tübingen in Germany. Following graduation, he went on to earn a degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in 1981.
Peter was a managing director in the Investment Banking Group at Bank of Boston. He later became the CFO for Longwood Health, a consulting firm based in Dubai, which grew out of wife Judy Dayton’s architectural practice designing hospitals throughout the Middle East.
Peter was extraordinarily accomplished in a number of areas. He gave up typical downhill skiing, presumably because it was insufficiently challenging, for the telemark technique, rarely seen in the East. An extremely gifted woodworker, Peter redid all the moldings and trim in a Brookline row house that he and Judy bought and rehabbed.
Judy was the perfect complement to Peter’s quiet, introverted personality, and together they were extremely adventurous, pursuing Peter’s curiosity about the world. They trekked through Annapurna in Nepal and explored the outer provinces of China, visiting the Uighurs long before the ethnic minority came to the attention of the Western world. Peter was also a skilled photographer, and some of the photos from these trips ended up in his photography shows.
Our condolences go out to Judy; her brother, Jim; Peter’s siblings, Tom, Bill and Lisa; and their spouses and children.
Jim Mendelsohn ’80 and Keith Stephenson ’79