Peter Frederick Schneider

1931 - 2020

Peter Frederick Schneider, 89, of Amherst, Massachusetts, music lover, tireless builder of community, and poet, passed away on December 29, 2020 after contracting the COVID-19 virus. In his final year he was a resident of the Elaine Center, Hadley Massachusetts. Peter was born April 10, 1931, in Waunakee WI, the third child and first son of Jakob Henry and Amelia Christine (nee Winger) Schneider. He is predeceased by Pat Schneider, his wife of 63 years, who passed away August 10, 2020, and his siblings Daniel, Henry, and Rosalind. He is survived by his sister Evangelin, of Sacramento California, and by his four children Rebecca, Laurel, Paul and Bethany, and by two grandchildren, Sarah Kavanagh and Nathaniel Schneider.

As a child, he played the clarinet in a family orchestra after his father purchased instruments for the family instead of badly needed farm equipment that was unavailable because of war shortages. In 1947, when he was 16 years old, Peter's parents sold their farm in Wisconsin and bought one in Orland, California, to which the family and livestock moved. He graduated from the College of the Pacific in Stockton, CA and from there attended seminary in Berkeley at the Pacific School of Religion, where he and Pat met and married in 1957. In 1960 he pursued a Ph.D. in theology on the work of Alfred North Whitehead and Emil Brunner at Boston University. He was a philosopher at heart, who understood his purpose and career to be oriented always in practical terms toward the building of inclusive and just communities that allowed for the healing and flourishing of individual persons.

After ministerial positions in Gleasondale and Worcester MA, he and Pat began ministry at Wesley United Methodist Church in Amherst, where they founded two residential communities connected to the church, made partnerships with other communities in working toward racial justice, and engaged in anti-poverty efforts across the region. In 1980, when the Methodist Conference Bishop planned to move him to another parish, Peter made the difficult decision to leave the Methodist ministry in order to stay involved with ongoing projects in the Amherst area, and to allow his children to complete their schooling there. With Michael Pill he founded New England Energy Development Systems Inc., while Pat founded Amherst Writers and Artists. Eventually, Peter became more and more involved with AWA, and he helped to create Amherst Writers and Artists Institute, an outreach program for women and children in public housing. He became the full-time manager for both organizations.

He served for several years in the 1990s as an Amherst Town Meeting member and wrote a column in the Amherst Bulletin entitled "Notes of a Shy Town Meeting Member." He also began writing poetry in earnest and when he started to experience traces of memory loss, he picked up the clarinet that he had put aside at a young age. He began taking lessons with Professor David Schneider of Amherst College (no relation) with whom he developed a profound and lasting friendship grounded in the love of the music and his struggle to remain present. His book of poetry, entitled Line Fence, was published by Amherst Writers and Artists Press in 2006. His poem from that collection, "Lost in Plain Sight" is published on the American Poetry Foundation website and has become a common text in social work courses on aging and memory loss.

Peter Schneider was a beloved father, husband, grandfather, friend. He was courteous always. He opened his home to any and all who needed shelter, a listening ear, a respite from the cruelties of the world. He adored his family, and especially Pat, his wife. The world is better for the life of the man who saw first the humanity of each person. We will miss this Shy Town Meeting Member, the piper of McClellan Street.