Necrology

Peter Torrey Marcy '59

Jul. 7, 1936-Oct. 9, 2022

Peter Torrey Marcy ’59, P’85,’90 died in Lynchburg, Va., on Oct. 9, 2022. Born on July 7, 1936, in Groton, Mass., Peter and his family relocated to Fayetteville, N.Y., when he was in junior high school. He came to Hamilton from Fayetteville-Manlius High School. On the Hill, he was a member of Theta Delta Chi fraternity and double-majored in philosophy and history, the latter becoming the focus of his subsequent academic career.

Peter worked on the Campus Fund as both a freshman and sophomore, played squash as a junior and senior, and joined several organizations, including the Hamilton Literary Society in his junior  year and the Philosophy Club and the Student Curriculum Committee in his senior year. He was elected class president as a senior. 

Peter’s academic achievement was distinguished. He graduated with honors in three disciplines: history, philosophy, and religion, and was also awarded The Babcock Prize in Philosophy and Pedagogy.

From Hamilton, Peter went to the Claremont Graduate School. In addition to the generous financial aid Claremont offered, he was attracted to the concept of a cluster of colleges in close proximity, each with its own mission and character, which would become the model for the coexistence of Hamilton and Kirkland. In 1960, he earned a master’s degree in Renaissance and modern European history. That same year, he married Arielou Johnson in the chapel at Claremont. They met three years before while his family was vacationing in Lake Worth, Fla., and she was waiting tables at a local Howard Johnson’s: Arielou had just completed her freshman year at Florida State University and took a typical summer job for college students. They had two daughters, both of whom attended Hamilton.

In the fall 1960, Peter began doctoral study at Claremont. As is typical of advanced degree students, he also began teaching at neighboring institutions: Pomona College from 1960 to 1961 and the University of California-Riverside from 1963 to 1965, the same year he completed his doctorate in English history, writing a dissertation on “A Chapter in the History of the ‘Bristol Hogs’: A Social and Economic History of Bristol, 1740 – 1780.” Out of that work came his first monograph, Eighteenth Century Views of Bristol and Bristolians, published in 1966.

For the next two years, Peter served on the faculty at California State University-San Bernardino. In 1966, he accepted some administrative duties as a part-time associate dean at the university, an experience on which he no doubt drew upon later in his career when he became a college dean. 

In 1969, Peter joined Kirkland College as an associate professor, becoming a member of Hamilton’s history department after the merger with Kirkland, and remained on the Hill until 1984. That same year, he became the dean of Wells College in Aurora, N.Y. Four years later, he went to Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Va., as its dean. He stepped down in 1994. After taking time off, in 1998 he became the executive head and director of the Virginia School of the Arts, also in Lynchburg. Three years later, he retired from that institution, but continued to make Lynchburg his home.

Peter served on the boards of several Lynchburg community organizations, including the Seven Hills School and the Legacy Museum of African American History.

During many summers, Peter and his family traveled to Chatham, Mass., on Cape Cod for vacations. Nearby were friends from Kirkland, including President Samuel F. Babbitt and his spouse, Natalie. In retirement, he devoted himself to reading, watching cooking shows on PBS, and enjoying the company of friends and family.

Peter T. Marcy is survived by his wife and his two daughters, Tosca D. Marcy ’85 and Brooke B. Marcy ’90.

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