Peter Emmons Viemeister

Peter Emmons Viemeister, 82, beloved husband, father, brother, and friend departed this life on March 2, 2011 at his home in Bedford County, Virginia.  

Peter was born the third child of August Louis V. and Janet Emmons V. in Mineola, New York. His inclination for entrepreneurship and publishing exhibited itself early in the family newspapers he wrote and published at age 8. He graduated from Roslyn High School with a Grumman Engineering Scholarship to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He loved Count Basie and jazz and enjoyed college life as a Pi Kappa Alpha member. Summers were spent drilling holes in the construction of Grumman\"™s Navy aircraft. 

Peter joined Grumman in 1950 as an engineer, beginning with missile design (a true \"rocket scientist\") before shifting to airplane design, gradually moving into management. He married and became the father of four children. He was a Trustee of the Huntington Public Schools and a Little League umpire. Peter made tasty German grandmother-inspired pancakes. He wrote the authoritative text, The Lightning Book. As a founding member of the Fusion Economy Party, Peter helped to reshape Long Island politics in the 1960\"™s. The marriage dissolved and there was another marriage. Following a year\"™s sabbatical to attend the M.I.T. Sloan School, and earning a patent on a simulator of human behavior, Peter became the first president of Grumman Data Systems Corporation. His second marriage failed. He moved back to the parent company, eventually becoming the Vice-President of Development. He was particularly proud of his participation in the Lunar Module project and the Gulfstream jet. Besides airplanes, Peter loved cars, especially the Corvair, and enjoyed road rallies. There was a third marriage. In the larger community, he served as Chairman of the Empire State College Foundation, taught organizational behavior at two colleges, and was a member of the South Carolina Energy Research Institute and the Institute of Energy Analysis (Oak Ridge). 

Retiring in 1978, Peter escaped the traffic and stress of New York to be his own boss and set up Hamilton\"™s on West Main Street in Bedford, Virginia. Within a couple of years, his marriage came apart. This New Yorker enthusiastically embraced Bedford and its people as home and became known as Bedford\"™s historian. He remarried and had one more child. Peter was an innovator and an encourager. In the Hamilton\"™s \"global headquarters,\" he designed and produced two Bedford history commemorative medallions, enjoyed his customers, and made many friends. Incurably curious, he translated his learnings into nine books, including the classics The Peaks of Otter, The Beale Treasure, History of Aviation, and one of a broader historical interest, Disinformation. 

Peter contributed his giftings as a volunteer in civic endeavors such as the Bedford Chamber of Commerce, the Lynchburg Community Trust, the Bedford Historical Society, and the Bedford Rotary Club. He was a founding member of Bedford Centertown and coined the word \"Centertown.\"  Peter served as Chairman of the Boards of the Bedford City/County Museum, the Bedford Community Health Foundation, and the National D-Day Memorial Foundation.  Peter both served on the Lynchburg College Board and was a Liberty University Regent for 25 years. For 9 years Bedford residents could listen to his weekly radio commentary show on WBLT. In 1992, Peter was the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year.  

He shall be greatly missed by his family.  He is survived by: his wife of 28 years, Cynthia Grubbs V. of Bedford and their son, Benjamin Thomas V. of Portage, MI; and his other children — Clay Neelands V. and his wife, Michelle Kipnes V. of Greenlawn, NY, and their sons, Troy Neelands V. of Hartsdale, NY, and Samuel Emmons V. of Hoboken, NJ; Read Lathrop V. and his wife, Susan Washburn V. of Huddleston, VA; Susan Burgess V. and her husband, Robert Allen Ballard of Piney River, VA; Katherine Anne V. and her husband, Sean Wallace Ciemielewski of Stanardsville, VA; their mother, Suzanne Neelands V. of Huddleston, VA; friend and former wife, Revelle Hamilton of Bedford, VA; his sister, Jill V. Stolz and her husband, Otto George S. of North Garden, VA; his sister-in-law, Marcia Daniell V. of The Dalles, OR; and many dear nephews and nieces. He was predeceased by his big brothers, Read V. and John Lathrop V., his sister-in-law, Beverly Franklin V., and former wife, Vivian Bussell.  His family is grateful that he took the time to write an autobiography, Start All Over: An American Experience.

Peter would be pleased if you made a donation to your favorite charity in his memory in lieu of flowers. Visitation with the family will be held at Tharp Funeral Home in Bedford on March 11th from 5-7 p.m. A memorial celebration of Peter\"™s life will be held on March 12th at the Bedford Presbyterian Church Fellowship Hall from 2-4 p.m. There will be a private interment at the Peaks Community Cemetery in Bedford County.