Peter H. Seed

1937 - 2025

Peter H. Seed passed away peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, on September 26, 2025 at the age of 88.

He is survived by his daughter Nancy Barkas (nee Seed) and her husband John Barkas; son Jonathan and his wife Alexandra Piper; as well as granddaughters Chandler Seed, Halley Seed, Abigail Barkas and Georgie Barkas.

Peter Seed was raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At the age of 13 he left home to attend Choate School in Wallingford, Connecticut. He spent his post-graduate year in England where he attended Harrow School. He earned his undergraduate degree at Yale University, where he was a member of both the Book and Snake Society and the Deke fraternity. After graduation, he married Linda Aikenhead. Their mothers, longtime friends, successfully conspired the match. With Linda at his side, he attended Harvard Law School where together they managed the International Visitor's Center. He then served as a legal officer in the Army for two years at Fort Benning, Georgia.

Linda and Peter returned to Peter's roots in Minnesota where he clerked for Minnesota Supreme Court Judge James C. Otis for a year. He then joined the law firm of Briggs & Morgan in St. Paul, Minnesota. Peter practiced law at that firm for forty years primarily as a public finance attorney. As such, he served for twenty years as the head of the firm's Public Finance Department which he co-founded.

They fell in love with a humble hobby farm in Grant which they slowly transformed into their "Shangri-La." There, they raised their family, including a Belgium exchange-daughter, alongside a wide assortment of animals and met many like-minded friends.

Upon retirement, Linda and Peter moved to a condominium on White Bear Lake and established Vero Beach, Florida as their legal residence. Each summer, Linda and Peter returned to Minnesota for five months of biking and gathering with old friends. For twelve years, they also spent two months each winter in the South Island of New Zealand biking and hiking, often with new Kiwi friends and fellow members of the Trixie Trampers.

Peter was active in civic affairs, but as he would say, his crowning achievement was helping secure local and legislative support for converting the abandoned Soo Rail line into the Gateway Trail. Peter held the position of Honorary Director of the Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota and the Gateway-Brown's Creek Trail Association. In recognition for his service in relation to the trail, he was given the Reuel Harmon Award in 2011.

In Vero Beach, he served on the Board of Directors and the Executive Committee of the Indian River County Neighborhood Association. He advocated for Sunshine Law reform to address one-on-one meetings of public boards and opposed the Brightline rail extension from Palm Beach to Orlando. Toward that effort, he helped draft and fund the Indian River Amicus Brief to the Supreme Court, challenging the Brightline bonds' tax-exempt status.

Peter will likely best be remembered for his love of "the great outdoors" and his zealous proselytizing to his friends and family of its majesty. He persuaded many of them to join him on his biking, hiking, canoeing and skiing adventures. To help spread "the word," he co-authored with his friends Nancy Wilson and David Dixon Biking with the Wind, a book of bike day trips in Minnesota and Wisconsin; wrote A Coastal Affair: Walking England's South West Coast Path with his brother-in-law, best friend, and frequent walking companion Steve Aikenhead; and published a series of eleven bike maps of the South Coast of New Zealand with his wife Linda.

He also organized Peter's Peddlers for an annual bike trip to Lanesboro and Preston, Minnesota which quickly grew into frequent bike trips all over Europe. He also gathered groups of friends for annual fall trips to hike the red rocks of Sedona, Arizona and throughout Europe, backpacking trips in the Rockies, and cross-country ski jaunts out to Marina on the St. Croix from his house in Grant, Minnesota. He loved both playing and watching tennis, most recently at Johns Island Club. After balance issues ended his biking and tennis playing, he found joy in riding his scooter, often with his later partner in life, Dorsey Smith, to watch tennis at John's Island or down the promenade of White Bear Lake.

He maintained his sense of gratitude until his end. As he penned in a Christmas letter: "...we continue to count our blessings for all the magical moments in our lives and, of course, you - our good friends and wonderful family." He never stopped counting and passed full of gratitude.

Services will be held August 8th in White Bear Lake at St. John in the Wilderness Episcopal Church. In his honor, donations may be made to the Gateway-Brown's Creek Trail Association through the Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota, reflecting his love of the great outdoors.