WILMOT, NH — Peter F. Guest of Wilmot, New Hampshire, who served in both the Merchant Marines and US Marine Corps before joining and eventually leading his family’s woodworking business, died January 14, 2021 of complications related to Covid-19. He was 94.
A polio survivor, Peter lived a life shaped by commitment, energy, and tenacity in his business combined with boundless enthusiasm for people, new experiences, and a lifelong love of laughter and music. He had a talent for being in the right place at the right time. At the age of 18 he was serving as the Chief Radio Officer aboard the Winthrop Victory, one of only two merchant ships present in Tokyo Harbor when the Japanese formally surrendered on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri. He’d joined the Merchant Marines after graduating from high school at 17 when merchant ships were used to supply the US Navy and other branches of the military during World War II. After the surrender, he went on to ports throughout the Americas and Europe before leaving the Merchant Marines in 1946.
Upon his release from the Merchant Marines, Peter entered the New York State College of Forestry at Syracuse University where he graduated in 1951 and was promptly drafted. He reported to boot camp at Camp Lejeune and, afterwards, was sent to San Diego where his experience as a radio officer earned him an assignment as an electronics instructor in San Francisco. He served there until he left the Marines in 1953 with the rank of corporal.
Born and raised in Mamaroneck, NY, where his father and uncles owned Nuroco, an architectural woodworking business in Norwalk, Connecticut, Peter graduated from Mamaroneck High School, spending summers at Camp Pasquaney and the family cottage in Fairlee, Vermont. He joined the family business after serving in the Marines and worked in every capacity including laborer, truck driver, lumber salesman, salesman, and supervisor of installations throughout Manhattan and the region to such customers as Johnson & Johnson. As president, he moved the company from Connecticut to Whitefield, New Hampshire and oversaw the shift of the business to furniture making under a new name, Brown Street Furniture. A licensed pilot, he often flew the company’s Piper Cherokee to call on customers outside the region. He remained owner and CEO until his semi-retirement in 1989 and full retirement in 1998. Unable to remain retired, he founded a specialty furniture company, Cherry Pond Designs in Jefferson, NH which he and his son Peter F. Guest, Jr. operated until recently.
Over the 55 years he lived in New Hampshire, first in Jefferson and then in New London, Peter became part of a large network of sailors and music lovers that brought folks from both towns together. As a board member of The White Mountain Festival for the Arts in the late Seventies, he enlisted Murray Washburn of Peter Christian’s Tavern to provide food for guests and musicians such as Taj Mahal, James Cotton, Paul Winter Consort, and Jazz greats Benny Goodman and Bucky Pizzarelli who performed on stage on the site of the old Waumbek Hotel in Jefferson. He bartended and acted as host for such visitors as former New Hampshire Governor Judd Gregg and President George H.W. Bush who was campaigning nearby.
Peter recruited crew members for Pipe Dream, his beloved Pierson 35 sailboat, from his family and from among the many New Londoners who’d helped out at the Festival, often sailing up and down the East Coast, Intracoastal Waterway, and throughout the British Virgin Islands. It was on one of these voyages that he met his wife, Jen Ellis and, not long afterwards, relocated to Wilmot.
In addition to Jen, he is survived by five children from a previous marriage: Elizabeth G. Marro, Peter F. Guest, Jr. Mary Eileen G. King, John A. Guest, and Katherine Margaret Guest as well as six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and six nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his father Edwin H. Guest, his mother Katherine Campbell Guest, and his sister Anne Guest Ameden.
A celebration of his life will be held later this summer. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Camp Pasquaney, 19 Pasquaney Lane, Hebron, NH 03241 or to The Mayhew Program, PO BOX 120, Bristol, NH 03222.