Peter O. Willauer ’56

Peter died Nov. 6, 2025, at his home in Falmouth, Mass.

He followed his father, A. Osborne Willauer 1929, to Princeton from the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, Mass. He joined Colonial, where he served as president. Peter majored in the Woodrow Wilson School and was stroke on the varsity crew team. Following his NROTC commissioning, he became a sailing instructor at the U.S. Naval Academy. Peter went on to earn an M.A. from Harvard and to teach mathematics at Groton School while continuing his sailing life as crew on several ocean races.

Peter was a dedicated and challenging educator: In 1963, he founded the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Penobscot Bay, Maine, and a similar school in Baltimore; in 1994, he established the Willauer School on Thompson Island in Boston; and in 2009, with his wife, Carol, he became the founding trustee of the Hurricane Island Center for Science and Leadership. In retirement, Peter and Carol sailed extensively throughout the world aboard his J42 sloop, Eight Bells.

Peter was predeceased by his first wife, Elizabeth Chittenden. He is survived by his second wife, Carol; sons Charles (Gale), David (Cathleen), and P. Langley (Dana Rae); eight grandchildren; and three great grandchildren.