Peter D. Barber ’66

Peter D. Barber ’66 died December 22, 2022, after a week of pneumonia with his family by his side. In March 1969 Pete was carrying his company’s radio equipment on a besieged hilltop near Con Thein when a Viet Cong mortar shell exploded right behind him. It severed his spinal cord and left him paralyzed. He spent the next 53 years in a wheelchair. Throughout his long and productive life, Pete’s courage, determination, humor, honesty, and humility were an inspiration to his many friends. Pete came to Dartmouth from Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. He was a Phi Delt; a first-team, All-Ivy fullback in soccer; a starting pitcher in baseball; and the recipient of the 1966 Watson Trophy as the College’s outstanding athlete of the year. In 2009, he was inducted into Dartmouth’s athletic hall of fame, the “Wearers of the Green.” Pete earned his master’s from the University of Pennsylvania before deploying to Vietnam. Pete grew prize-winning dahlias, coached his children’s soccer teams, and worked for the Social Security Administration. He loved road trips and rolling down the middle of the street or around the track for a mile before work in the morning. He would answer children’s questions about the wheelchair with candor and kindness and surprised all by lacking discernible regret or bitterness. His life is celebrated by his wife, Mary, children Christopher and Heather, stepchildren Tobin and Aaron, foster daughter Brenda, first wife Kim, and grandchildren Noah, Zoe, Bryston, Grainger, and Tia.