Peter L Anker

Obituary of Peter L Anker

Peter Louis Anker (born May 14, 1935) passed away at his home in Darien, CT on February 23 surrounded by family. As his name suggests, Peter Anker was a strong and sturdy support for all who knew him. For his family, he was a warm, loving, and supportive rock on which multiple generations grew and prospered. Professionally, his wise counsel and advice in the metals and mining industry helped build one of America's premier investment banks.

A woodworker all his life, he knew the importance of a sturdy base and strong connections. Like the best cabinet makers, he made joints to give a piece of furniture or cabinet beauty and function and join its parts for life. With family, friends, and colleagues, his wisdom, decency, and humor were the mortices that held them together.

He was born in Konigsberg, Germany in 1935, into an extended Jewish family. He and his parents, Dorothea and Hans, were forced to flee their home and family in 1939 for safety in England first and then to the United States in 1940. He grew up in Springfield, Illinois as he, his parents, and his sister Carole Jean, built a new life.

He graduated from Springfield High School in 1953 and was one of very few members of his high school class to come East for college, attending Columbia University in New York City graduating in 1957. While at Columbia he studied English literature, skied in Canada and Vermont, and stood to see all the great Broadway musicals.

He never lost his love for reading, theater, and New England, filling his book shelves and Kindle, attending performances and supporting Encores and the Goodspeed Opera House, and skiing and vacationing at his home in Vermont. Music and the arts were also constant throughout his life - classical music and the Great American songbook always played in his house, car, and workshop. Following in the footsteps of his father who helped found the Springfield (now Illinois) Symphony, he was an active board member of the Stamford Symphony (now Lumos) in Connecticut.

He received an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1961. He served in the United States Air Force on active duty between college and graduate school and in the reserves in France after being called up during the Berlin Wall crisis. He had a long and successful Wall Street career as a securities analyst in the metals industry, including at Smith Barney and First Boston, ultimately retiring as Director of Equity Research at First Boston, before unretiring multiple times.

But Peter Anker was much more than his impressive resume. His greatest achievements and joy were his family - his two sons Philip, of Keston, England, and Kent of Pleasantville, NY, their wives Elizabeth and Patty, and his grandchildren Samuel, Lucy, G, and Roan. He was a constant loving presence providing advice, encouragement, and wisdom with distance never being an obstacle, regularly providing typed letters and phone calls. His home was a center of celebration, wine and chocolate (which he could not live without). He was a devoted brother to his sister Carole Jean Sternstein and her husband Jerry and uncle to his nephew Matthew Sternstein, his niece Alexis Schwartz, and their families.

His great love was his wife Billie. Married for thirty three years and best friends for years before that, they built a life together of family, joy, laughter, food, and travel, and were constant companions. He became a beloved stepfather, grandfather, and great-grandfather to Billie's four children, John, Chris, Tom, and Karen, who brought them eleven grandchildren and their ever-growing number of great-grandchildren (now at seven). He is survived by his wife, children, grandchildren, great-children, and his sister, brother-in-law, niece, and nephew.