Peter Merritt Rinaldo passed away on May 2, 2008. He was at home in Ithaca, NY surrounded by his family.

He was born in Evanston Illinois on June 21, 1922. He spent his childhood in Wheaton, IL, as part of an extended family of siblings and cousins. Many happy summers were spent at the family camp on White Earth Lake in Minnesota. In 1937 he won a contest and, at age 14, accompanied only by a classmate, went to Europe for six weeks. This was the beginning of many foreign travels throughout his life.

He attended Principia, and then rather than following the family tradition of going to college in the Midwest, headed to the east coast and entered a joint program at Bowdoin College and M.I.T. where he graduated suma cum laude from Bowdoin in 1943 and then earned a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering from M.I.T. in 1946. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Tau Beta Pi and Sigma Xi. Immediately following graduation he was commissioned as an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve and sailed as an electronics officer on the USS MACON.

While at Indoctrination School in Fort Schuyler, his sister arranged a blind date with Dorothy Warren, the niece of her coworker. They enjoyed a fairytale courtship in New York City during the summer of 1944 and were married in July 1946. Their first son, David, was born in 1947, followed by Marjory in 1950 and John in 1952. The family lived in Lexington, Massachusetts until 1965.

He began work for Dewey and Almy Chemical Company as a process engineer in Cambridge, MA in 1946. One of the memorable years the family had was spent in Germany in 1956, where Peter was responsible for building a factory in Hamburg. Dewey and Almy was acquired by W.R. Grace & Company, and in 1965 the family moved to Tarrytown, NY. Peter spent the remaining years of his career as Vice President of the Industrial Chemicals Group and later the Industrial Products Group with W.R. Grace & Company in New York City. In these positions he traveled extensively throughout the world and was instrumental in the acquisition of many companies for W.R. Grace. He retired in October of 1982. He was very active in the Unitarian fellowship of Briarcliff, Croton and Ossining, and was a founding member and treasurer of the Ossining Peace and Justice Center. Peter also served for 10 years on the Board of Trustees of the Ossining Public Library. He was an enthusiastic and dedicated member of the Scarborough Fire Company, serving terms as its treasurer and president. Following his retirement from W.R. Grace, he began a new career as an author and publisher. Starting with three family genealogies, he then moved on to topics of more general interest. His published works include, "The Great Reindeer Caper; Marrying the Natives"; "Unnecessary Wars"; "The Five Day Weekend"; "Atheists, Agnostics and Deists in America"; "Nature Nurture and Chance"; and "Full Employment, Is It Possible?".

He was devoted to his family and always took family vacations in the summer and was always home for family dinners when he wasn't traveling. He took his entire family; children, their spouses, and grandchildren, on many wonderful vacations over the years. He instilled a love of traveling and adventure in his children and grandchildren.

His cheerful and optimistic nature continued throughout his life, even after the onset of his illness. He will be sorely missed by his wife of 61 years, Dorothy Warren Rinaldo; his three children and their spouses, David Rinaldo, Suzanne Gelber Rinaldo, Marjory Rinaldo-Lee, David Lee, John Rinaldo and Elaine Rinaldo; and his five grandchildren, Rachel Rinaldo, Lucinda Rinaldo, Alexander Lee, Julia Lee and Robby Rinaldo.

A Memorial Service is planned for June 1, 2008 at Kendall in Ithaca. Donations, in lieu of flowers, may be made to the Peter Rinaldo Concert Series Fund.