Obituary of Peter R. Armonda

                                 IN MEMORY OF PETE

    Pete used to say rather wistfully that as a kid he always felt a little cheated because he was born on Christmas Eve; he never had a birthday. To compensate, I think he celebrated everyday !

    There is not a good friend or even an acquaintance of Pete’s whose life was not better for having known him and who is not diminished because he is now gone. There are few people in one’s life that leave much of a mark-- a lasting one. Remarkably, Pete surely did that. No one who knew him, even a little, could forget him.

    One had to recognize his respect for human dignity. He was able to cope with the world he lived in  no matter what it was, because of the purity of his thought. He is the only man I have ever known who belonged completely to himself. That was the major attraction for his friends, I think. He had an absolute clarity of purpose and his friends were in awe of his concepts.

    One asks: How did he do it all and how did he do it without being a bore, without sacrificing his humor and magic as a man? He did it because his convictions about life, work, and people were so strong they were unshakable. Nothing--no one--could make him lower his standards, lessen his character.

      Character, a rare trait in our world today, was to Pete the most treasured thing a man could have. Having been schooled by Jesuits, you learned that even if you thought a wrong thought, though no one else knew--the fact that you knew was enough to affect and damage your character…the result being that you were worth less to yourself and to your world. Extreme “yes and amen”, but the best kind of extreme.

    How did he recognize the imperfections in life and people? He accepted them and was not embittered by them. He learned very early that the extras in life had to be worked for. Nobody gave Pete anything. Whatever he had, he earned. I remember as a teenager working with him when he drove a paper truck for “The Sun Times”. I could not believe how he carefully retrieved pennies on every paper returned as unsold.

    Pete never tried to be popular. He gave greatly in friendship and was aware of the limits of his friends. He accepted them as they were and not as he hoped they would be. He had incredible patience and understanding with everyone. He was a partaker of life, a man of class- true class- a career and protector. “Home flourishes on care” he said, “not neglect”. He never neglected it and it flourished. Home was precious to him and the people in it inviolable.

    There have been many men conscious of history wanting to leave their mark to be remembered. Pete was not one of those men, he did not think that way. And yet he has left more than most men ever do. His spirit, courage, and character will live in our hearts intact. He had the greatest gifts a man could have: respect for himself, his work, and for everybody around him. He couldn’t let anyone else down; he would be letting himself down and he had to live with himself.

    One could not know him and feel the bigness in him and have some of that character rub off--one could not see him without becoming richer. As we search in our various worlds for some type of answer, here is something to hang on to--someone to feel safe “because of ”.

    As I look back on my own life and think of the people I have known, a few great, many famous, some really smart--Pete stands out as a giant. And not because he tried to be, but because he was. He had a great gift for communicating with everyone, of all ages, in all walks of life. So he left all who knew him even slightly, poorer with his loss.

    I find it difficult to write about him. Not because of the lack of ideas, but perhaps because of too many. My head is still full of recent texts he sent--(all during the middle of the night) gifts I received from him that are helping me still confronting life’s abrasions. He left me with a sense of laughter--a sense that in spite of the worst possible adversity, there still could be something to laugh about. He was my mentor AND my friend.

    Pete was a vulnerable, humorous man, too easily touched by people, resourceful, thoughtful, disciplined; never a bystander, a disinterested party. He was a pushover-a soft touch--sentimental, loving and a giver. He was a man to whom success came late--but that it came at all was his proof he did not believe in vain. He had to fight for every victory he had but in spite of that he never lost faith.

    Pete did not make a fuss about religion, but he was one of  the most religious men I have ever known. He believed in the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule and he lived by them uncompromisingly. He took a great deal of me when he passed but he left the rest of me stronger. Although I will miss him dearly, I shall be forever grateful. I was most privileged to have known him.