PETER VOUGHT

VOUGHT--Peter.

Died peacefully at age 86 on April 13th, 2015 at home surrounded by his family. An intellectual with an astounding depth of knowledge of art, poetry, history, music and philosophy with a great sense of humor and a lightning quick wit, Peter was an artist, a pilot, an avid chess player and a skilled athlete, including a ranked squash player and four goal polo player. He was born in New York on July 27th, 1928, to Aviation Pioneer Chance M. Vought and his wife Ena Lewis Vought. He attended the Arizona Desert School, Deerfield Academy and Yale University. He served in the United States Navy and was stationed on the USS Yorktown. While in the Navy, he performed a successful dead stick landing at night of a crippled F9F-5 Panther fighter jet at 280 miles per hour in Alameda Island, CA. After the Navy, he studied portraiture at the Arts Student League under Edwin Dickson, and went on to study at The Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and the Academie Julien in Paris, France. In 1959, he married Barbara Schmid and moved to Aspen, CO and Santa Barbara, CA. In 1965 while living in Aspen, he co-founded the then Aspen Air Rescue with Betty Pfister while searching for NASA Dr. William Randolph Lovelace and his family. In 1978 he moved with his second wife Nan Newton to Santa Fe, NM, where he continued to paint and play polo both in the U.S. and internationally. His paintings are in both private and public collections; his work was selected to hang as a symbol of American Art in the American Embassies in Moscow and Dubai. His work is also seen in Scarves by Kolibri. Peter was predeceased by his brother Chance Vought, and his granddaughter Olivia Kuenne. He is survived by three daughters and three grandsons. His daughter Leslie Vought Kuenne and Chris Kuenne of Princeton NJ; his daughter Victoria Vought of New York, NY; his daughter Annie Vought and Scott Vermeire of Oakland, CA; his grandsons Peter, William and Matthew Kuenne; and his niece Gay Jones and his nephews Chance, John and Craig Vought. Although Peter's marriages ended in divorce, he remained good friends with both Barbara and Nan until the end. A celebration of his life is planned for August 8th in Santa Fe.