I’ve known Peter for more than 40 years; first as a professor and mentor at Duke University during the late 1970’s and then after I graduated, as a friend and fellow Blue Devil basketball fan.
During my senior year, I took two courses taught by Peter, one on Urban History and the other on Poverty/Inequality. He would host some of our classes at his home in the Forest Hills neighborhood, and that’s where I first met Dedee, his lovely wife, and Hillary, his youngest daughter, who was seven or eight years old at the time.
Peter’s class was where I also met my long-time friend and activist compadre Bill Adler. The two of us collaborated on two class projects:
- An Oral History of the Edgemont Community that covered its’ origins as a mill community in 1901 to the organizing efforts to improve housing conditions in the 1960s and early 1970’s; and
- A slide show and photo exhibit on the people of the Edgemont Community that made the case for City investment in the neighborhood rather than demolition of it for a municipal maintenance facility and warehouse. The slide show and exhibit were both shown at the Edgemont Heritage Fair (April 1979) and then given to the staff of the Edgemont Community Center to be used as part of their community education and advocacy efforts. NOTE: The City decided not to build the municipal facility in Edgemont and invested funds in the revitalization of the community.
These were the most impactful and memorable projects of my undergraduate studies and set the table for my subsequent 30 plus years working on affordable housing. I am thankful to Peter for his inspiration and encouragement to make a difference.
In the 1980’s, I visited Peter and Deedee on the Double D Ranch with my friends Bill (Adler) and Charlotte (Katzin). When we were there, I remember meeting his foreman Manny, who also hailed from my home town, Jersey City. What are chances that two kids from Jersey would meet on a ranch in Ridgway, Colorado? I also remember walking up a short hill and being exhausted because I wasn’t use to being at high altitude, the True Grit Café, which Deedee managed, visiting one of the area’s hot springs, and the beautiful mountain scenery.
Over the subsequent years, I was able to see Peter and Deedee several times in Denver when I was visiting Bill who moved there with his family in 2004.
I mainly kept in touch with Peter through Bill, who saw him & Deedee on a regular basis. Bill, Robin and Zeke became a part of the extended Decker family. I also kept in touch via my annual Holiday Card, which usually included a copy of the Duke Men’s Basketball preview issue and a pocket schedule so Peter could schedule his social and work activities around their games that season. He often referred to his home as “Cameron West” a reference to Duke’s famed Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Thanks Deedee for sharing Peter with me and with so many others. I will miss his wry humor, his storytelling ability, and his warm and welcoming smiles.