Born July 24, 1935
Arlington, Massachusetts
Died January 17, 2024
Lebanon, New Hampshire
Details of services
The day after he passed, family and friends buried Peter under an apple tree in Putney, Vermont. A red tail hawk soared above the burial. There will be a memorial fire and gathering on June 2. If you would like to come, call Sandy at 802-579-3044.
Peter R. Klein, 88, passed away under hospice care in Lebanon, NH, on January 17. He was born in Arlington, Massachusetts on July 24, 1935, son of Ruth (née Simmons) and Frank Klein. He grew up with his brother Fritz on a small dairy farm in Chester, NH. A childhood of hard physical labor spurred his later ideas of liberation from workplace drudgery. His hands were so strong from milking cows every morning that his father used to make him shake hands with the other men around town just to show off. He had powerful hands until his last days.
Peter attended Pinkerton Academy where he was known as the “Chester Casanova.” He was very popular and was elected class president for four years. He loved to folkdance, and even danced in a celebration for Eisenhower held at the University of New Hampshire. When he was 16, he met his life-long partner and best friend, Gloria Klein (née Abbott).
In the mid-1950s, Peter was drafted into the Army, where he trained to become an expert marksman—later he would tell his kids about his minor acts of rebellion. (He was in the same battalion as Elvis and yet never cared to meet the guy.) For a month he was stationed in Germany, where he was joined by his wife Gloria. There she gave birth to their first child, Sandy.
Following his discharge, he studied physics and computer science at the University of New Hampshire. During this time, Gloria gave birth to their second child, Eric.
Peter’s interest in workplace economics led him to find work as a computer programmer at Western Electric, and later at Digital Equipment Corp. He taught programming at the New Hampshire Technical Institute and by the 1980s had set out as a freelance programmer.
Peter Klein was a utopian. He believed that many common and unpleasant workplace practices should be eliminated, and that our society would be a better place if people were allowed to associate more freely together — free of the traditional restrictions of age, class, race, and gender. He and Gloria understood concepts of polyamory early in their relationship even before the free love movement of the ‘60s. They settled and raised children in Canterbury, NH and later lived in the Boston area before finally moving to Brattleboro, VT. Beginning in the late 1970s, both he and Gloria were active in various alternative marriage support groups. Peter spent his sixties with another beloved partner, Jan Frazier, and then returned to live out the rest of his life with Gloria.
While not a holiday gift-giver, for a span of time he gave his kids tools as gifts. When his oldest granddaughter was a toddler, her favorite game was to play in his toolbox. He wrote short stories, including some erotica, and completed a memoir, Fields and Islands. Peter enjoyed shooting, archery, fishing, boating, swimming, and camping—as well as some unusual hobbies like hang gliding, which he pursued intermittently until he was eighty. He would often talk of flying a mile over Mount Ascutney sailing the wind alongside the hawks.
Peter was an avowed atheist who loved to discuss religious ideas with all kinds of people. He read Gurdjieff, P. D. Ouspensky, Franklin Merrell Wolff, various philosophers, and anything about the origins of man, science, and the universe. The last book he read was The Dawn of Everything by Graeber and Wengrow. Peter was also really good at buying small parcels of land, islands, and peninsulas, back when the average person could do such things.
Finally, he was particularly fond of his five grandchildren, Xavier, Rosa, Isaiah, Eliza, and Oliver, whom he taught how to have real fun with wild stories and his puppets (he was a double ventriloquist). Together they tried roasting every possible thing on a fire (from Oreos to Certs), slightly dangerous things like trespassing, crossing trestle bridges, swimming across the Connecticut River, sneaking a sip of scotch, sliding down cliffs, and hang gliding. To his grown children, Eric and Sandy, he was not just a great dad and granddad– but a great friend too.
When his health declined, Peter could be seen almost daily shooting pool at the bowling alley and the local pub, Bar 580, hitting great shots and unabashedly cheating. “Why waste your limited time on a bad shot?”
He leaves behind many beloved family members both blood-related and chosen: Gloria, Sandy, Eric, Fritz, Melissa, Rosa, Isaiah, Xavier, Eliza, Oliver, Jan, Gino, Hayden, Nanci, Kristofer, Peter T., Nicole, Ross, Jerry, Judy, Bill D., Helene and Adwoa—as well as their respective partners who lent continual love and support: Laurie, Mary, Matt, Gracie, Prerna, Sue, Susan, James, Lisa, Brew, Fawn, and Susan. He is also survived by great-grandchildren Finley and Reed, and their parents Brit and Marissa. He is predeceased by many loved ones, most notably Dolphin, Stine, and Casey.
