Peter T. Hitchcock ’53

After a gallant fight against Parkinson’s disease, Pete died May 14, 2013, in Jackson, N.J.

Following graduation, he left for the Navy’s training program and was discharged as a lieutenant senior grade. At his impressive funeral ceremony, the Navy played Taps.

Pete earned a law degree at Columbia, married his beloved wife, Cecily (“Ceci”) Kohlsaat in 1960, and became counsel for Allied Chemical. Then he joined Conoco Chemical (later DuPont), handling its legal affairs, and eventually was a founding executive of Vista Chemical, retiring in 1994.

Born in New York City, Pete grew up in Bronxville, N.Y., attended the same local grammar school as John Stone, and the two prepared at Exeter, where Peter graduated summa cum laude. Princeton roommate Joe Briggs remembers Pete studied hard and was a welcome addition to his, Tom Kane, Chuck Kellogg, Lacy Rice, and Peter Streich’s football-weekend milk-punch parties. He was a politics major, worked on the Bric-a-Brac, and graduated cum laude.

He and Ceci spent several years at Hilton Head, but their most satisfactory time was at the family’s 90-year-old estate, Thurtilperk Hill, in Sandisfield, Mass. Besides Ceci, cherishing Pete’s memory are his brother, the Rev. Horace Gaylord Hitchcock; daughters Courtney Cole and Sharon; and one grandson.