The Legacy of Peter Graeff
Allan “Peter” Hathaway Graeff, Jr.
July 28, 1943 - January 11, 2017
His family members were active in the life of Warner when he was growing up. After getting a degree in Liberal Arts at Washington and Lee University in VA, he spent five years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Peru working with rural cooperatives and, as Peter said, "discovering the richness of learning to live in a different culture and especially with the disadvantaged who do their best to help themselves through community organization.” Later he studied Agricultural Economics at the University of Wisconsin, and worked as a research assistant to a Bolivian Agrarian Reform Project. After graduation, he spent two years in Costa Rica and El Salvador, and was transferred to Haiti in January 1976 where he lived for the rest of his life, among the poor.
Peter collaborated with a number of church-related organizations during his career as an agronomist, and supported students in Port-Au-Prince and on the island of La Gonâve. He helped David Diggs, the Co-Founder of Beyond Borders get that organization started.
Peter found he had the ability to open the eyes of others to see how to provide assistance so that they too could take part in helping people acquire adequate food, education and skills so that, in his words, "they could have the ability to live the abundant life that the Lord wants for each of us.” His own life was a model of selflessness. For instance, after the 2010 earthquake he lived outside for two years because he gave away every tent that was given to him. He just couldn't see others without shelter if he could provide it.
Warner sent funds to support Peter's work throughout his time in Haiti. We contributed to the tuition fees of agricultural and nursing students, helped pay for repairs to homes damaged in storms, and sent relief funds and supplies to victims of the 2010 earthquake. In June of 2011, Warner sent a mission team to Haiti to help with reconstruction efforts and to see first-hand some of Peter’s projects.
Peter chose to be buried in the land he loved, close to the people he faithfully served for so many years. After his devoted friends and family saw Peter properly honored and buried on La Gonâve, more of his friends and loved ones, from all over the United States and other countries, gathered at Warner Memorial Presbyterian Church on March 4, 2017, for a second memorial service. Ed Graeff, Peter’s brother, asked Warner to establish and administer a fund in Peter’s name for the purpose of supporting the projects and people that had been so dear to him. We are pleased to have been able to do that, and we are grateful that most of the students that Peter had been supporting at the time of his death have now graduated. We are also grateful for the contributions the Allen “Peter” H. Graeff Memorial Fund continues to receive that allow us to help keep Peter's mission alive.
