Volume 42, Issue 1 (pg. 8) The Newsletter of the Kayak & Canoe Club of New YorkPeter G. Wallace Dies in WTC Attack
Peter G. Wallace, an avid white-water kayaker and long-time club member, was killed in the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.
Peter was 66 years old and a vice president at Marsh & McLennan with an office on the 100th floor of the WTC north tower. He lived with his wife Charlotte in Lincoln Park, New Jersey.
“Kayaking was more than recreation for Peter. He loved it and loved his friends who did it with him,” his wife said. “He was a sane kayaker,” Charlotte Wallace added, “but he did some pretty good stuff.”
Wallace regularly paddled with KCCNY members Bill and Marge Hone, and Marge Hone said it appears his last season was his best. Wallace had a new Prijon Boxer, was doing a little surfing and “was really feeling good on the river,” she said.
“He was the one we depended on to tell us about the releases.” Marge Hone said. “He kept a log on every trip. He was a Marine and it came out. He was so organized. His gear was folded and clean. Everyone else’s was grungy.”
Wallace and his friends paddled the Upper Hudson River every Memorial Day weekend, and they regularly paddled the Mongaup, Esopus and Shepaug rivers. Wallace would have been among his friends late last September as they paddled the one-day release of the West River. The Hones and others made the trip in his honor.
Wallace is survived by his wife Charlotte; two grown daughters, Alison Smith and Reagan Koniuch; and five grandchildren, Andy, Zachary, Kristen, Lauren and Benjamin.
His son-in-law Steve Smith recalled affectionately that kayaking was Wallace’s second passion, because his grandchildren came first. “Peter loved to read to his grandkids; he was just starry eyed around them,” Smith said.
Wallace would have turned 67 on January 22. The family remembered his birthday by releasing white balloons with red and blue streamers over Long Island Sound. The balloons carried inscribed messages into the sky to the husband, father and grandfather who is missed so dearly.
This tribute was inscribed on a plaque near the Lincoln Park train station:
We shall never forget our friends
and neighbors
Who rode with us that morning
But did not return with us that night.
May this tree serve as a Living Memorial
To all those who perished
In the tragic attack on
The World Trade Center.
Forget not, those friends who at one time lived in Lincoln Park,
and are never to return.
Peter G. Wallace: Opa's Second ChancePeter G. Wallace believed that being a grandparent was a better deal than being a parent — all of the love and almost none of the work.
"We get a second chance," said his wife, Charlotte. "We may not have the energy, but we have a lot of patience." Mr. Wallace had five second chances — Andy, Zachary, Kristen, Lauren and Benjamin. They called him "Opa" and "Pa."
Mr. Wallace, 66, still worked as a vice president at Marsh & McLennan, but he always had enough time to read to his grandchildren. The titles he read were the same enduring Dr. Seuss classics from his daughters’ childhood — "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham." When one grandson wanted a story read, he would pull the glasses out of Peter’s shirt pocket and hand them to him.
A few days after Sept. 11, Zachary, 5, looked up and exclaimed that he saw a star against the daytime sky. His skeptical father looked up, and surprisingly enough there was a shimmering white speck fixed against the blue. What could that be, asked the father. The boy responded confidently, "That’s a star from God to show that we miss Pa."
Copyright (c) 2001 by The New York Times Co. Reprinted by permission.
