Peter Foot Buell

1936 - 2022

Peter Foot Buell

Holyoke, MA — Peter Foot Buell, born March 14, 1936, passed away on April 22 following complications from a stroke he suffered in July of 2021. His daughter, Honor Melanie, was with him.

Peter was born in Raleigh, North Carolina where his father Murray Buell was a professor of ecology. The family moved to the New Brunswick, NJ area when Peter was 9. Peter spent many summers with his grandparents in Shelburne Falls, MA, which he came to think of as his true home and where he retired in 1999.

From an early age Peter showed a deep fondness for the natural world and an aptitude for science and mathematics. After graduating from Highland Park High School, he attended Cornell and Rutgers universities, graduating from Rutgers Cook College with a degree in Soils. Peter complete graduate course work in geology at Columbia University, where he developed expertise and a lifelong fascination in the natural forces that shape the Earth's topography, and a particular love of glaciology.

Peter's love of the outdoors ultimately led to a position as a ranger with the Hunterdon County Park System based in Flemington, NJ where he spent the remainder of his career designing walking trails, maintaining open spaces, and patrolling on foot through the wooded hills of the area.

Peter is predeceased by his wife, Joyce Crecelius, to whom he was married in 1965. They had three children, Albert Charles, Jeffrey Montgomery, and Honor Melanie whom the parents loved dearly and did their very best to provide with the resources and guidance that ultimately resulted in three successful and happy adults.

Peter was an outdoorsman through and through, with a great love of canoeing. He was at his best and in his element when kneeling in the stern of a canoe, shooting through Class III rapids, and barking orders to his bowman: "Draw! Backpaddle! Forward Hard!" This is how we will remember our father.

No public services are planned. The family will hold a small memorial service for Peter at a place that he loved, with his friends and family.

Peter would have been honored to know people had donated in his memory to any charitable organization whose mission focuses on preserving natural landscapes and habitat, including the Franklin Land Trust at 5 Mechanic St., Shelburne Falls, MA 01370.