 | | | (3/31/30 - 12/30/19) | | | | | | Peter Graf passed away in Grass Valley on December 30th, 2019 at the age of 89.
Peter was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the oldest of three boys, to parents who emigrated from Switzerland. He attended schools in Binghamton and Syracuse, New York. He received a BS in Chemistry from the University of Rochester and a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He met Susan Flanders Ward while in Madison and they married in 1958 in Rye, New York. They moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where Peter worked for Chevron Research in Richmond, California. They had three sons, Michael W. Graf (El Cerrito, CA), David D. Graf (Loma, CO), and Peter A. Graf (Boulder, CO). They lived in Orinda for 35 years before moving to Nevada City in 1996. In 1963, Peter and Susan built a ski cabin in Alpine Meadows with friends, and the family enjoyed years of skiing and hiking in the Sierras. Peter was also an avid windsurfer, mostly in South Padre Island in Texas, and after retiring learned to mountain bike and telemark ski. Peter volunteered at the South Yuba River State Park and the Bear-Yuba Land Trust. He helped the Sierra Club to build the Bradley Ski Hut and was a member of the Bear Creek Planning Committee in Alpine Meadows.
In addition to his wife and three sons and daughters-in-law, he is survived by his brother Rudi (Newcastle, Maine) and his nine grandchildren: Asa, Sam, Emil, Noah, Elsa, Henry, Toby, Ned, and Jasper.
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Lamorinda Weekly, Moraga CA