Peter Neckles started upon a new odyssey on June 13, 2022.
Peter lived a rich and full life of never-ending learning, demonstrated a remarkable devoted love to Marisa, and achieved many great accomplishments in his career.
These are just a few highlights.
Born in New York City, Peter was raised in a Greek American family. He aspired to learning at an early age and graduated with honors from the very challenging Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with a BS degree. He went on to Fordham Law School where he received a J.D. cum laude, and was elected to be Editor of the Law Review.
This educational experience helped provide Peter with great intellectual energy. For the rest of his life, he was fascinated with ideas and learning. He read assiduously and built a large personal library. Peter relished the discipline and challenge of mastering history, human experience, science, politics, religion, almost anything. Peter loved to explore and debate ideas with others. He was open always to new and original thoughts, never accepting dogma as a given, and was always respectful of fresh thinking by others, provided it derived from applying the requisite disciplined and studious standards he applied to himself. Otherwise, Peter would politely and quietly dismiss it.
He maintained a robust sense of humor, loved a clever witticism or pun, and appreciated well-conceived sarcasm. Above all, he could easily be called upon to laugh at himself because his ego was most certainly well intact.
Early on Peter was inspired to pursue his legacy as a descendant of Greeks, the philosophy of the ancient Greeks, particularly Plato and Aristotle. He admired their theories of learning, their interplay of logic with mathematics, and rhetoric with scientific reasoning. Its not surprising that he spent many hours reading their works and contemplating their meaning and relevance to the modern world. This may also partly explain why Peter loved chess so much and would gladly play a game almost anywhere with anyone he encountered. His goal, upon retiring as an attorney, was to read all the great classics, and particularly those authored by his Greek “cousins” Aristotle, Plato, Homer, and Anaxagoras.
Peter had a long accomplished legal career, after starting out at White & Case, he moved on to become partner in the highly respected worldwide firm Skadden Arps. He came to be recognized and admired for both his thoroughness and his ethical integrity. Peter always felt a great sense of respect for the very raw human impact the law can have. This sense of responsibility was expressed by Peter in every phase of his life.
One of his greatest loves was of the open water. Nothing pleased Peter more for many years than to be sailing his boat on the Long Island Sound. He relished the smell and freshness of the sea and the great sense of peace and freedom it provided to him. Years later he enjoyed frolicking in the waters of Anguilla with Marisa and strolling along the beach and seawall in Palm Beach. Peter also was a superb swimmer.
In December 2000 Peter and Marisa were married. From that moment in his life, he was thrilled to have a truly devoted partnership and the full and rich sharing of two lives we all aspire to. In recent years this love and devotion were put to the test because of the challenges of Peter’s illness. There was an unending series of new health problems, procedures, and treatments. In the manner of the ancient Greek philosophic principles, he so much respected Peter ground his was through it. Throughout this medical gauntlet near the end of his life Peter showed tremendous courage and resolve. As trying as the medical experience was, he was strengthened by the love he felt constantly for Marisa, and hers for him. He went bravely on through it. In February 2022, after four months in the hospital, he wrote a short note to Marisa. He confessed to her that he had almost given up on life on four separate occasions. But each time he contemplated her devotion and courage, her unstoppable energy, her uncompromising and unconditional love, and the love he felt fer her, and so he managed to get through each time. All Peter wanted was to leave the hospital and return to a peaceful simple life with Marisa at home.
Peter was taken from us at much too young an age, and so we all are saddened for our great loss and sorely long once again to hear his ideas, witness his genuine love of humanity, and experience his great sense of generosity and responsibility to the world. Peter, depart with the Angels on your new voyage.
