Peter J. Ames

1945 - 2020

Peter John Ames died at the age of 75 on June 27th at White River Junction, Vermont, of complications from Alzheimers. He was born in Rome, Italy, on May 13, 1945, to Colonel John Dawes Ames of Chicago, who was serving as Allied Military Governor of Rome, and Jasna Pervan, a Croatian who had fled the Nazi invasion of her country. She and Peter emigrated to New York in 1949 in search of a better life and educational opportunities. Jasna spoke six languages and worked as a librarian at Columbia University and the Metropolitan Museum and a translator at the United Nations and the Federal Reserve Bank. A graduate of St. Bernards School in New York, St. Pauls School in Concord, NH, and Harvard College (class of 1967), Mr. Ames spent a year at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in Bologna, Italy, before earning his law degree from Harvard in 1971. He went on to a varied career in educational law and museum administration, with positions at Boston and New York Universities, the Metropolitan Museum, the Boston Aquarium, and the Boston Museum of Science, among other institutions. His love of all things international also led him to work with World Paper, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature in Geneva, as well as on consulting stints in far flung places from Paris to Greece to Kenya to New Zealand. Later in his career, Mr. Ames served on many nonprofit boards, with a particular focus on population issues and the arts, as well as being elected a representative in Brooklines town government. Peter was an avid traveler, mountain climber, soccer player, skier, tennis player, and dancer. An inveterate Francophile, he loved nothing more than to travel through Europe with friends in the summer and toot through the countryside without any idea of where they would spend the night. He was fond of alliteration, Motown, freebies, proverbs, fireplaces, Volvos, coffee ice cream, and slideshows. Above all, he was always in search of adventure and brought many friendships and traditions together across the world. Peter is survived by his two loving sons, Nicholas Ames of Easthampton, MA and Brookline, VT, and Oliver Ames of Brookline, MA and Brookline, VT, as well as two grandsons, August and Sidney of Easthampton, his former wife, Eve Endicott, also of Easthampton, and two surviving half- siblings. He also leaves Nicks wife, Lauren, Olivers fiance, Emily, as well as Peters devoted companion of recent years, Mareen Harwell of Perkinsville, VT. His sons are proud to be carrying on his legacy and values, encapsulated in Desiderata and the motto Perge Sed Caute. Peter will be buried next to his mother in Woodstock, VT, where he maintained a house and love of the Green Mountain State for many years. A memorial gathering will be held in Boston when conditions permit. The family would like to thank the nurses at the Village at White River Junction and Bayada Hospice for their dedicated care, as well as the Dingman and Blodget families for their steadfast support throughout his life. Remembrances may be left at the website for the Cabot Funeral Home: https://www. cabotfh.com Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Cure Alzheimers Fund, Planned Parenthood, or the scholarship fund of the Harvard Outing Club.