Peter Daniel Badame

1948 - 2024

Badame, Peter Daniel

Mar 11, 1948 - Jul 17, 2024

A civic force and community builder in Port Townsend, WA since 1978, perhaps best known for launching Jefferson Transit and serving as its first General Manager, passed away at home July 17, 2024 at the age of 76. Badame was born on March 11, 1948 in Buffalo, NY. His parents were Anna Theresa "Honey" Simone Badame and Peter Thomas Badame. Badame's early life was on the East Coast. He was raised in a household made up entirely of strong Italian women – his mother, his aunt Maria Assunta "Aunt Sue" Simone, older sister Anna Marie, and maternal grandmother Maria Giuseppa DiNardo Simone. Peter graduated from the Bishop Timon High School. He earned an undergraduate degree from Canisius College in Buffalo in 1969 where he had put himself through school working in a steel mill. After graduation, he served with the anti-poverty program VISTA before earning a masters' degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1973. He taught developmentally disabled children in Tonawanda and West Seneca, NY, from 1971 to 1976, then became a project coordinator for the Linwood-Oxford Association, a non-profit devoted to the preservation of a neighborhood of Buffalo's historic homes. Engaging, bold, and a natural organizer, Badame quickly took up the cause of creating a public transit system for his new home town. After completing a feasibility study and garnering support, Badame, then 33, was hired as Jefferson County Transit's first general manager. Within the decade, Jefferson Transit's success was celebrated with a federal award for outstanding rural systems. Badame remained its founding general manager until 1990. After he led Transit through its opening decade, Badame became a transportation consultant, but in 1993, returned to work in non-profits with the fledgling Port Townsend Marine Science Center as co-director for finance and development until 2005. Then in 2008 he worked as operations coordinator of the Olympic Community Action Program (OlyCAP). At heart Badame was a humanitarian, expressed through his civic work and passion for social justice. He served on the Port Townsend City Council from 1998-2002, was chair of the Economic Development Council and a director of the Port Townsend Chamber of Commerce. He also served on the Jefferson County Planning Commission and the county's Ferry Advisory Committee. Through the 1990s, he was appointed by the Legislature to the Board of Pilotage Commissioners. He served on numerous local educational and civic committees. In his retirement years, he volunteered his time as a truck driver and furniture hauler for Habitat for Humanity. He is survived by his beloved partner and spouse of 52 years Monica Macguire, daughters Clare Alice Accurso (Justin) and Giulietta Badame (John Coley), and five grandchildren: John 'Jack', Clara Jane 'Janie', and Barbara 'Betsy' Accurso of East Aurora, NY and Quinton and Matteo Coley of Seattle, his brother-in-laws, Conrad Frandsen, Thomas Macguire, sister-in-law Maureen (Randall) Kielt, as well numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends far and wide. He was preceded in death by his mother, father and sister.