Peter Thorne passed away in May, 1977 in San Francisco, Calif., leaving a wife and young child. He had married Elsa Valentino on August 12, 1967, a delightful young Italian woman he met while traveling in Italy.
Following his graduation from Claremont High, Pete attended the University of California at Santa Barbara where he completed his undergraduate studies that prepared him for the Pharmaceutical Doctorate degree he received from the University of California at San Francisco, UCSF. He managed a number of independent pharmacies in local retail stores in San Francisco over the course of his professional career.
Pete and I remained good friends after leaving Claremont High, and we shared reciprocal visits while he was at Santa Barbara and I was attending Pomona College. It seemed Isla Vista, an off-campus student housing area where Peter lived, was pretty much in an anything goes, party mode 24 hours a day, and I think I got the better end of the deal than Peter did visiting our relatively quiet, buttoned-down Pomona College dormitories.
After our sophomore years in college, Pete invited me to accompany him as he visited with his father and stepmother in Massachusetts for the summer. To save money, we traveled on the way east by Greyhound Bus which was quite an experience. We stopped in St. Louis, Missouri and New York City to visit my relatives on the way. We really “did the town” in New York since the drinking age at the time was 18, and we were well cared for by my aunt and uncle and a good friend of my father’s who all lived in the City. A nice hotel, dinner each night at great restaurants, guest passes to the Yale Club, and orchestra seats to “My Fair Lady” starring Rex Harrison and Julie Andrews were a few of the highlights of our trip. I won’t get into the lowlights of late night beer drinking in German Town, prowling the after hours jazz joints and experiencing other adventures that were real “eye openers” for a couple of kids from “Clareville.”
We spent most of the remainder of the summer as guests of Pete’s father and stepmother at Cape Cod. We stayed at what I would call a “compound” near Wood’s Hole. We had a great time sailing a Sunfish, departing each day from their private beach. Pete and I shared the “Captain’s Quarters” which was like having our own small house while the rest of the family stayed in the main house.
Pete and I kept in touch in San Francisco. He was very proud of and enthusiastic about his new pharmacy operation that was located near our home in San Francisco. I last saw him when he invited Colleen and me over to take a tour of his new facility about a week before his death.
At the time of his passing by his own hand, Pete was being treated for a biochemical depression disorder that required close and constant medical attention. His death was shocking and hard to accept; we all miss him.
