Some of my favorite memories of Peter were sitting with him in his study at the Ranch and discussing the plot of a novel he was planning to write. He loved to take historical events that took place in locations he knew well and loved and to develop characters for a novel that would be fun to read and that would educate the reader about actual events. For example, his novel “Red, White & Army Blue” dealt with the U.S. Army being ordered in 1881 to move the Colorado Ute tribe from the Uncompahgre Valley to Utah. Peter uses an army translator whose mother is Ute and father White to describe to an army corporal how the government has made promises to the Utes and then broken them over and over. It is a wonderfully succinct chapter that summarizes historical events from the viewpoint of the Utes and sets the stage for the remainder of the novel. It is Peter at his best: a superb historian and a wonderful storyteller. I will miss those stimulating conversations with Peter.
