The Passing of a Pioneer

The ed reform world lost a great man recently, Lovett "Pete" Peters, founder of the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts in 1988.  I had the pleasure of meeting him a year or so ago.  Here is a Boston Herald editorial and below is further information:

Pioneer pioneer's legacy

By Boston Herald Editorial Staff
Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Lovett C. Peters, founder of the Pioneer Institute, was one of those quiet heroes on the local scene who gave much, asked little in return (except perhaps that events run on time) and lived long enough to see his contributions to this community bear fruit.

Peters founded the free-market think tank in 1988 at the age of 75. He died last week at age 97. But today the power of his ideas - ideas nurtured by Pioneer - live on. His support for expanding educational opportunity, especially through public charter schools, helped provide a first rate education for thousands of youngsters.

Pete Peters' generosity and his drive helped make Pioneer an incubator of ideas on how government can be run better and more efficiently. He has left us, but that work continues.

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The Passing of a Pioneer

Our founder, Lovett C. Peters, died Thursday (November 11) at the age of 97. A dear friend summarizes the loss aptly: "We have lost a citizen of the first rank. I always admired his hopeful determination and his undiscouraged philanthropy. He never seemed to waver from the important objectives, even when the headwinds of opposition were strong enough to force most others to go to ground." After a fall this summer that led to a fractured hip, it was his hopeful determination that took him from hospital emergency room to rehab center, to his home, to a walker and even a cane. In October, Pete came to the office and attended board meetings. His death came after a fall at the theater, when his walker got caught on a carpet. His was a great life—a hopeful, principled, determined, and undiscouraged life. We were all touched by it, as were thousands and thousands of children in the Commonwealth and elsewhere in the country, because of his work to improve the academic excellence and equality of opportunity in our schools. We will carry this work well into the next generation and beyond.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/editorials/view/20101116pioneer_pioneers_legacy/