Peter David Abrahams

Pete/Dad passed peacefully on September 16, 2021. He was dozing in the garden, surrounded by his Japanese maples and towering redwoods, a glorious sky above him. That morning he talked about his full life, how he'd done everything he wanted, and how lucky he was to be loved and supported by devoted family and friends. He is survived by the loves of his life, each relationship unique and deep: his wife of 34 years, Connie; his children Chris, Gretchen, Jessica and Cypress; and his grandchildren Joey, Izzi, Georgi, Jake, Robie, and Christopher; his brother Jeffrey. Pete's colorful stories told so entertainingly gave glimpses into his childhood (b. 4-19-1939) in a multigenerational-Italian-Jewish home in Brooklyn, later in Sao Paulo. He credited teenage summers working on farms in Brazil's heartland and later on Louis Bromfield's organic Malabar Farm in Ohio, as foundations for his bonds with agriculture and animals. This affinity surfaced in the 1980's when he ran vineyards in Mendocino owned by others. In 1995 he created Blue Oak Vineyard developed from scratch and co-owned with brother-in-law Mike Dubin. For a decade, Blue Oak became a happy gathering place for picnics and dips in the pond by family, friends and beloved dogs. The 110 acres of grapes he sold to wineries in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino. That rich experience gave Pete themes for his novel, a writing challenge which satisfied his creative urges and gifts--he did not care about publication. Pete's major livelihood from the 1980's was organizational consulting to both start-up and major technology, health and pharmaceutical companies such as Interactive Health Systems, Intel and Johnson & Johnson. For this global work, he drew heavily on strengths from his service as a U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, from the practice of Aikido, from creating experiential approaches for alternative learners including Common College, and from his decades helping community-based organizations focused on social and economic empowerment with their organizational development. As co-founder and president of the National Training Institute for Community Economic Development, Pete and team assisted CDCs across the U.S, including Lummi and Navaho Tribes; CDCs in urban and rural areas such as Nassau County and Bedford Stuyvesant, TELACU in East LA; the U.S. Office of Education, the National Institutes of Health and Mental Health. Based on this work, he established a certified Masters degree program in community economic development. After retiring from consulting and selling the vineyard in 2007, Pete focused on planting 50 Japanese Maples around our Mill Valley home. He knew each by its Japanese name and learned to prune masterfully. At 71, he went to Wyoming for Wilderness Medicine Training by NOLS, became a Certified Wilderness EMT and used insights to work with Marin County on redesign of community disaster preparedness. At 76, he and Connie embarked on raising a new puppy, their second adored Portuguese Water Dog. Since Pete's first symptoms in 2016, finally diagnosed in 2019 as Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), that incurable degenerative disease progressed steadily as expected. We tried to keep life seeming "normal" as long as we could, kept his preferred routines at home, kept great food and wine flowing. He read voraciously as he had all his life. It was a very intimate time during Covid. When it seemed safe, we hosted short visits in the garden. The VA brought him excellent home-based vaccinations, OT and PT. Many physicians gave compassionate counsel. We agreed to participate in UCSF's global, multi-year research study of this poorly understood disease. While it involved exhausting days of tests, scans, interviews, it gave us a way to turn the beastly affliction into a positive contribution to science. Pete's donation of his brain and body to this research are the rare gifts that offer the most valuable clues toward understanding CBD and eventually formulating treatments or cures. Heroically, as he lost so much of what had defined his robust, independent self, Pete managed to keep his life-long sense of humor, his capacity for introspective reflection, and ability to synthesize complexity and vast experience into profound wisdom. In calls with dear friends spread across Brazil, Europe, New York, LA, Rhode Island, Northern California, he became very intentional about expressing his love. He made clear how proud he was of his grandchildren (named above) and his nieces and nephews (Mauricio and Vanessa Abrahams; Krista, Karoline, and Erika Dubin; Theo, Eugenie and Lydia Dubin; Curtis Cooper) and how much he respected and loved his sisters-in-law Flavia Abrahams, Amy Dubin, and Deborah Dubin Hedley and brothers-in-law David and Michael Dubin, and Craig Hedley. We celebrate Pete who would light up a room. Even from afar now, we can feel his presence, his unique joie de vivre. We laugh out loud recalling his tales of adventure, told with such gusto and his bellowing laugh. We miss him, cherish him, and he will live on deep inside us.