Peter D. Danforth ’55

While under hospice care for pulmonary fibrosis and after a long, meaningful life, Peter Danforth died June 29, 2011, in Alamo, Calif. He was 77.

Former class president and erstwhile president of the Tigertones, Peter was on Princeton’s Alumni Council and received the Class of 1955 Distinguished Service Award. Peter’s Air Force service fostered in him a lifelong interest in flying, and he enjoyed making cross-country flights in his Cessna as well as exposing children to the discipline and joys of flying as a volunteer for the Wright Flight Foundation in Tucson. Peter’s deeply loyal, generous philanthropy and service to the schools his children attended led Colby-Sawyer College to name a new dormitory — Danforth Hall — in his honor.  

His 35 years of work in venture capital culminated in forming his own company, Kearsarge Ventures. Retirement gave Peter time for golf, a great passion, with classmates Burks, Callen, Dillon, Hackl, Mountcastle, Sienkewicz, and Summers. A founding member of Baker Hill Golf Club in Newbury, N.H., Peter also had special fondness for the Tucson Country Club. In AA, Peter found friends and fellowship.  

To Peter’s wife, Sheridan; and his children David, Mark, Kimberly, and Laura, the class sends sympathy and thanks for a life well-lived.