To all friends of Peter DeMott and the DeMott-Grady Family.

Thursday, Feb. 19, 2009

It is with very heavy hearts that we share the news of the death of our dear brother Peter DeMott. Peter passed away this evening after an accident falling from a tree. We invite the community to wait for an email as to when services will be held. Please hold Ellen and their beautiful daughters in your thoughts and prayers. We thank the Jonah House Community, in Baltimore, for their loving note below. 

The Grady and DeMott Family

How do we say it? How can we begin to absorb, much less communicate, the news we have to share? Peter de Mott did not make it through surgery. He died - as best we can understand it - in surgery this evening.

Peter, well named "the rock", is gone from us. A rock, an anchor? Both! And then some. We reach out in grief to Ellen, to their stunning daughters, to all the Gradys, to the whole Ithaca community, to the DeMott family that has endured so very much. He was there for all of us.

Lets hold Peter's family within the circle of our love. And let us hold one another in love and compassion. Maybe it's the best way to hold Peter among us. How will we make it without him?

Love from us all at Jonah House

A community celebration of the St. Patrick’s Four and their families at the Southside Community Center in Ithaca, N.Y., September 17, 2006. Two days before the invasion of Iraq, four Catholic Workers from Ithaca (NY), in an act of non-violent civil resistance, entered a military recruiting center and carefully poured their own blood around the vestibule. The four, all parents, were tried in Tompkins County Court in April 2004 on charges of criminal mischief. Nine of the twelve jurors voted to acquit. However, almost a year later, the US government decided to retry the four on charges of conspiracy.

I met Peter and his family last spring. We all walked to Fort Drum. His daughter danced and laughed along the road with us.  I was with the group from Rochester, they were with the Ithaca group. Since then I  often saw him or his work for peace appear somewhere. 

The more I got to know about him, the more I realized how blessed we were. A veteran of the Army and the Marines, he became one of the country's leading anti-war activists. As an ex-Marine, I see hope. Peter’s love and compassion was endless. He was always there -all the time sharing his deep felt conviction to end the killing. His life was about non-violence.

Although his passing will be a tremendous loss to Ithaca, to New York, to the world and to all those who work for peace and justice, we all gained so much because of his time with us.

Thank you Peter.

Russell