PETER ISEMAN

ISEMAN-- Peter A., 72, died on February 7th as a result of chronic cardiac and respiratory disease complicated by COVID-19 at Riverside Doctors' Hospital Williamsburg, in Williamsburg, VA. He is survived by two siblings, Ellen M. Iseman and Frederick J. Iseman, a niece, Eugenie J.M. Iseman, and two nephews, Henry J.F. Iseman and Alexander T.I. O'Neill. He was the son of the late Marjorie Frankenthaler Iseman and the late Joseph S. Iseman. Peter attended The Dalton School, Riverdale Country School and was a 1970 graduate of Yale University, with a B.A. in English. College experiences included living his senior year in Elihu, membership in the Elizabethan Club, and writing a prize-winning senior essay on Nathaniel Hawthorne. While at college, he worked as a stringer for CBS News. He studied Arabic at the American University of Beirut and took courses at the Middle East Centre for Arab Studies (MECAS) in Shemlan, Lebanon. He traveled widely in the Arab world, once hitchhiking from Algiers, Algeria across the Sahara to Accra, Ghana. He wrote often for publication on Arab language and culture, at one point living among Bedouin tribes. Peter's cover story for Harper's magazine, "The Arabian Ethos," in 1978 won the Overseas Press Club's Mary Hemingway Award for foreign reporting. A linguist and bibliophile to the core, he taught himself Russian while still in high school by watching educational television. In addition, he enjoyed Latin and read and collected books voraciously. Peter freelanced as a writer for many publications including The Washington Post and served as a commentator on television, generally on subjects related to the Middle East, appearing, for example, on The MacNeil/Lehrer Report. He was also a dedicated photographer, taking pictures that sometimes accompanied his articles. Peter loved Martha's Vineyard, where his family spent their summers, and also had a strong interest in old Connecticut towns near New Haven. Before moving to Virginia, he resided in Washington, DC, where he freelanced as a writer, joined book groups and led an active life. In lieu of flowers, Peter's sister and brother would be grateful for donations in his memory to the Yale University Child Study Center for research in the field of child behavioral health. The address is Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, PO Box 7611, New Haven, CT 06519-0611, attention Ms. Zsuzsanna Somogyi. A memorial gathering for Peter is planned in New York City once the pandemic has passed.