Peter Earle Thurston
May 29, 1940-Dec. 19, 2024
Los Altos, California
Peter Earle Thurston May 29, 1940–December 19, 2024 Peter Earle Thurston, beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, and uncle and cherished friend, passed away surrounded by the love of his immediate family members. Peter was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to John Oakley Thurston and Frances Beverly Thurston. He grew up in rural Western Pennsylvania, where he, his fraternal twin brother, Michael, and his sister, Jacqueline Beverly Thurston, explored the woods, streams, and hills that surrounded their home. (Michael John Thurston died in 1999 and is survived by his wife, Linda Jaffurs Thurston.)
Peter graduated from MIT with both a BS and an MBA in Industrial Management. His membership in the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity provided him companionship and an opportunity to play intramural sports as well as a way to sail on the Charles River, all welcome antidotes to the rigor of his academic program. In his junior year he was invited into Tau Beta Pi, the world’s oldest engineering honor society.
Following graduation, Peter worked for seven months at IBM in Boston. He took a two-year military leave of absence from IBM to fulfill his Army Corps of Engineers ROTC commission. During that time, he worked on the NASA Saturn V Second Stage Project in Huntsville, Alabama, before he was called to serve in Vietnam as an Army captain. He resourcefully arranged a transfer from the central command center in Saigon to a remote Army spare-parts depot in Qui Nhon, where he served as the officer in charge of a card data-processing center. In so doing, he was able to fulfill his joint values to both serve his country and not participate in the demise of another.
Upon his discharge, he worked for IBM as a Systems Technology Group sales representative in San Jose. At that time, computer technology was rapidly evolving, and IBM was at the forefront of the revolution. He was a sales manager for Stanford University and Lockheed Missiles and Space Corp. Peter was introduced to his wife, Carol, by his sister, who thought they might be a good fit. They were married on March 29, 1969. During an era when IBM stood for “I’ve been moved,” Peter made a commitment to stay in Los Altos Hills in order to be actively engaged in the lives of his three children and to provide a stable home life for his family. When the opportunity arose to help establish IBM Japan, however, he and Carol accepted a four-year relocation with their family to Tokyo, where his outdoor spirit led him to climb Mount Fuji twice. On one descent after nightfall, he tripped, but his paratrooper training kicked in and he instinctively tucked and rolled to continue his descent undeterred.
During their time living abroad, Peter and Carol took their family to explore many countries and cultures throughout Asia as well as in Europe and Africa. As his children grew, Peter prioritized camping, backpacking, and skiing with his family, pastimes his adult children continue to enjoy to this day. Having discovered the joy of skiing in his twenties, Peter taught countless friends and family members how to navigate any slope with confidence, including how to safely manage the toughest terrain. On backpacking expeditions, he famously encouraged his weary companions by saying of their destination, “It’s just around the corner!” He was a patient and thoughtful instructor who challenged others to go beyond their comfort zones but also recognized when it was time to warm up with a cup of hot chocolate.
Above all, Peter prized being a husband to his cherished wife of fifty-five years, Carol Connell Thurston, and a dad to his three beloved children, Jonathan Thurston, Gregory Thurston, and Katherine Thurston Newell, as well as an uncle to Kate, James, and Beth Connell and Mark and Beverly Thurston Baller. He greeted the arrival of each of his five grandchildren with joy and took great pleasure in organizing ever-growing summer family reunions on both the East and West coasts—visits that were followed by a celebratory Christmas card he designed featuring a gathering that grew over time to include his five grandchildren: Eleanor and Jonathan Thurston and Teo, Siena, and Charlie Newell.
Peter thoroughly enjoyed his retirement years and loved collaborating with the many people he befriended through his extensive volunteer engagement with many local organizations. These include Hidden Villa, Environmental Volunteers, Filoli Center, Fellowship Forum, Sons In Retirement (SIR) Branch 35, Los Altos Rotary Club, Mentor Tutor Connection, a book club, a Bocce Ball League, and multiple hiking groups he organized. Through his varied roles with these organizations he embraced every opportunity to form meaningful connections with people of all walks of life and with the natural world around him. These profound friendships and connections led him to describe this period as “the happiest time in my life!”
Peter took to heart and lived Maya Angelou’s words, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” His children and grandchildren are his legacy and his gift to the world. For his fiftieth MIT class reunion notes, he wrote, “My greatest joy is collaborating with our adult children on their projects and supporting our three [a number that would grow to five] grandchildren with the opportunity to help their dreams come true.”
There will be a Celebration of Life gathering in Peter’s honor at the Los Altos Community Center on March 23, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. Peter delighted in hiking and introducing children to nature. If you wish to remember him, instead of flowers, kindly consider a gift to Hidden Villa, Los Altos Hills, in his memory.
Tags: veteran, business, public service
