Robert Peattie Jr.

Peattie Jr, Robert
Robert A. Peattie Jr., known to all as "Bob", died peacefully on January 10 from complications from pneumonia. He was 93. Bob Peattie was born April 14, 1919, and raised in New York City. He was the son of Robert A. Peattie, a lawyer, and Anne Peattie, and older brother of James Ellis Forrestall Peattie, who predeceased him. Bob enrolled at Manhattanville College and subsequently graduated from Yale. After three years in the Army, he joined AT&T in 1946 and began a career that focused on market research specializing in travel and resort development. Bob married Nancy Hyatt in October, 1953 and the couple settled in Greenwich, where they raised their children, Rob, Andrea and Bill. Bob later joined American Airlines, and then opened his own firm, Travel Research International. Bob loved travel, and his work took him around the globe, including parts of Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Europe, frequently accompanied by Nancy. On one trip in 1984, Bob and Nancy awoke well before daybreak to climb Mt. Sinai. He retired in 1985. A lifelong democrat, Bob was passionate about politics at both the local and national level. He worked on various Kennedy campaigns, and was a key advisor to Ruth Sims, in her landmark victory as First Selectwoman of Greenwich in 1977 after two recounts and an eventual re-vote. At the time, registered republicans outnumbered registered democrats by nearly 3-1 in Greenwich. He had a particular interest in civil rights, and worked to help those less fortunate have educational opportunities. Bob was a voracious reader, and had an insatiable appetite for accurate information. Even in his later years he was always conversant on current events and developments in his primary areas of interest, which also included sports and American History, especially the civil war. Despite being a New Yorker, Bob was an avid Red Sox fan, having become enamored of Ted Williams when the Red Sox played an exhibition at Yale during Bob's time there. As one friend said on hearing of Bob's passing "He was such a gentleman and the soul of humility, possessed of such a brilliant mind and voice of reason…he will be missed and so will that card-catalogue brain of his that had such an incredible variety of facts at his bidding…" Bob and Nancy spent nearly 20 years in Bridgehampton, NY until Nancy's death in 2003 whereupon he returned to Stamford. In addition to his three children, Bob is survived by a daughter-in-law, Cathy Mulrow-Peattie, and one grandson, Jack Peattie. Donations in Bob's memory can be made to The Fresh Air Fund, or Room to Read.