Petrea Hoving Durand

1928 - 2016
Petrea (Petie) Hoving Durand passed on June 16th. Petie was born in New York City August 24, 1928 to Mary Osgood Field, a descendant of Samuel Osgood the first Postmaster General of the United States, and Walter Hoving, who helped lead Tiffany & Company to worldwide success. Petie was predeceased by her brother, Thomas Hoving, former Director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In 1954, she married Harry "Buddy" Durand with whom she had three sons.

Petie was educated at Miss Hewitt's school, Dana Hall and Vassar College. She was a talented horseback rider who qualified for the United States Equestrian team and an avid sailor. She sailed classic wooden boats throughout Long Island Sound for most of her life. From an early encounter with Al Jolson to the poetry of Bob Dylan and the Beatles, Petie was a lifelong music lover.

As a young assistant buyer in the women's junior dress department at Lord and Taylor, Petie displayed an eye for discovering the best French couture and traveled abroad several times a year scouting collections. Eventually working her way up to head buyer at Bonwit Teller, Petie negotiated an exclusive agreement with Brooklyn's Junior Sophisticates and introduced the world to a young designer named Anne Klein.

She later worked for Equitable Life where she sold insurance to individuals and non-profit organizations, some of whose clients suffered from addiction. As a result, Petie became a passionate advocate for the treatment of addiction as an illness.

In the 1990's, Petie fell in love with the miniature pincher dog breed, nicknamed "minpins." She was charmed by the dogs because she thought they looked like miniature horses. An early adopter of Apple computers and the Internet, Petie helped organized a nationwide organization dedicated to minpins. Learning there were minpins in need of rescue, she and a group of dedicated minpin owners harnessed their resources to help preserve the breed. They founded the Internet Miniature Pinscher Service, "IMPS" with a mission to distribute information about the breed and provide foster care, adoptive homes, and veterinary care. As a founder, Ms. Durand with other members of the board, created an operation that 19 years later would become the Nation's largest single-breed rescue service. IMPS has rescued over 20,000 dogs and has 500 volunteers throughout the United States and Canada. Taking on a leadership role, Petie dedicated the remainder of her life to this effort, even after macular degeneration impaired her vision. Using large fonts and services for the blind she read and responded to the hundreds of emails she received daily. She met each day with stubborn determination and passion.

She is survived by three sons, including Samuel Osgood Hoving, of New York, Thomas Holmes Durand of Randolph, Massachusetts, her sister-in-law, Nancy Bell Hoving of New York and niece Petrea Hoving Leventhal of London, UK, a granddaughter, three grand nieces, three minpins and a Siamese cat.

Donations in her memory can be sent to the Internet Miniature Pinscher Service, Inc., IMPS www.minpinrescue.org.