Peter Rubin

1985 - 2022

Peter Karlsson Rubin
April 24, 1985 - January 29, 2022
Peter Karlsson Rubin, 36, of Berkeley and Santa Cruz, died January 29, 2022 in Capitola, California. Brilliant, creative, and compassionate, he made an enormous difference in the lives of hundreds of people.

Peter was born in Berkeley on April 24, 1985, and attended the Head-Royce School in Oakland, where he was co-valedictorian of his high school class, and Stanford University, where he earned a B.S. and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering, specializing in Product Design, and received a Terman Award for being in the top 5% of his engineering class.

After college and travels through Southeast Asia, Peter spent three years as a product designer at Daylight Design in San Francisco, while teaching Team Dynamics at the Stanford School of Design. He left in 2011 to begin a series of new, overlapping careers, principally working as a business and personal coach, but also co-founding the Brotherhood Community, creating workshops on racism, social justice, masculinity, relationships, and other issues that mattered to him; writing weekly newsletters to his hundreds of followers; and leading guided meditations for various groups, including his men's groups and his women of color meditation group.

Peter brought radiant joy wherever he went and rejoiced in the beauty of nature. He was a creative force, with his oil paintings and watercolors, his piano improvisations, and his spiritual –and spirited – drumming and flute-playing. Peter was insatiably curious, fascinated by how things work, how to make them work better, and how to help people truly thrive. Most important to Peter were his close relationships with family, friends, colleagues and clients. He had a talent for connecting with people at a deep level and developing open and honest interpersonal communication. He shared his feelings and beliefs with courageous authenticity and vulnerability. He cherished personal interactions, which he nurtured through joy, insight, and his probing intellect.

His family and friends will miss him tremendously and will hold him in their hearts forever.

Peter's survivors include his parents, Michael Rubin and Andrea Peterson of Berkeley, his brother, Eric, and Eric's wife, Avry Schellenbach, of Oakland, his sister, Emily, and Emily's fiancé, Ryan Gilley, of Oakland. A memorial service will be held in the East Bay later this spring.

The family suggests that donations in memory of Peter be made to Spirit Rock Meditation Center to honor Peter's commitment to meditation, or to RMI (formerly the Rocky Mountain Institute), which Peter supported because of its work on climate change.