With great sadness my wife, Patti, and I have learned of the passing of Prof. Peter G. Boyle. In the fall of 1964 Peter and I became roommates and fellow graduate students in History at UCLA where we both earned degrees and soon launched our careers as professors. In June, 1965, Peter and I flew to London and, at a Jesuit Retreat House in Swiss Cottage, I met his brothers John, Joseph, and George. In 1967 Peter traveled to Oregon to be part of our wedding party. In succeeding years Peter visited us at our home in Oregon and my wife and mother-in-law were his guests in Nottingham. Although time and distance separated us, we kept in touch by mail and then e-mail over the decades.
Peter was a wonder for a me, a boy from a logging and lumbering town on the coast of Oregon. He knew Greek and Latin and was well versed in the classics, but then I discovered he did not know how to drive a car or to type. We were good for each other and, when working as Teaching Assistants at UCLA, we often discussed the readings and our approach to teaching undergraduates. Peter went on to pursue the history of World War II, especially in the volume he edited of the Churchill-Roosevelt correspondence in the 1940s. We shared letters, books, and ideas.
Peter was a man of equanimity, quietly reflective, never showy, and always, always a friend. He is missed.
Stephen Dow Beckham
Pamplin Professor of History, Emeritus
Lewis & Clark College
Portland, OR.
beckham@lclark.edu
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