Peter De Mott, Ithaca Journal obituary

Published March 17, 2009 in the Ithaca Journal There is a guest book for comments on the Journa;’s web site.

PETER JOHN DE MOTT
Jan. 6, 1947 – Feb. 19, 2009

Peter De Mott, 62, loving father, husband, son, uncle, friend, peace activist and Catholic Worker, died after a work related accident, February 19, 2009. He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Ellen Grady; and their four daughters, Marie (23), Kate (20), Nora (16), and Saoirse (6); his mother, Marie Ryan De Mott; siblings, Joseph (Katherine), James (Lynn), Michael (Gemma) and Catherine Steel (Richard); mother-in-law, Teresa J. Grady; sisters and brothers-in-law, Mary Ann Grady Flores (Oscar Flores), Clare Grady (Paul Sayvetz), John Grady (Laurie DeFlaun), Teresa B. Grady; and many nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his father, John Irving De Mott; and siblings, Mary, Stephen, John, and Charles.

Peter was born in Washington, DC, and grew up in Crookston, MN and Omaha, NE. Peter was a graduate of St. Margaret Mary’s Grade School, Creighton Prep, and the University of Nebraska at Omaha. He served in the Marine Corps and spent 1969 in Vietnam. He also served in the Army where he received training as a linguist and was assigned to a NATO post in Ankara, Turkey.

Peter wrote: “My experience in the military convinced me of the futility of war and of the sad misallocation of resources which war making requires. In l979 I joined the Catholic Worker movement and began to work nonviolently for justice and peace by addressing some of the root causes of poverty, unemployment and homelessness.”

From that point Peter committed his life to Jesus’ message of non-violence. “My faith in God prompts me to work for a world which unifies us all by ties of love and solidarity and mutual cooperation.”

This commitment brought Peter on a journey that sought to confront the works of war. He was arrested and jailed numerous times and served over three years cumulatively in prison for his nonviolent civil disobedience.
“It is the responsibility of each and every one of us to nonviolently confront our leaders who break the law with impunity, through their use of lies, deceptions and forgeries to promote and prosecute war,” he wrote. “The law should promote life and the well being of everyone and should preserve and protect the earth and its creatures.”

We remember Peter this St Patrick’s Day, the sixth anniversary of the March 17, 2003 action where Peter, Danny Burns, and Clare and Teresa Grady poured their blood at the local Army/Marine recruiting center, two days before “shock and awe” began, in an act of nonviolent symbolic action.
We commit ourselves to continue the work for peace and justice whenever our government persists in a policy of war that takes the lives of the innocent at home and abroad.

“Nothing of good and lasting value comes without a price,” Peter wrote, “and I have been privileged to be part of the world-wide struggle for peace and justice, along with so many others who have done so much. To the extent that we sit passively by during these challenging times-when the fate of the earth and all its life forms hangs in the balance, to that very extent we give our tacit approval to the forces amassed to destroy us.”
We thank God for the gift of Peter’s life. His loving spirit, warmth, generosity, caring, and hope, have endeared him to so many. He was our papa, our dad, our husband, our rock, our teacher, our guiding light, our love. This loss is hard to comprehend, it seems so unreal, but we must try to hold onto the faith that he taught us. We walk in his love.

Contributions can be made to the Ithaca Catholic, 133 Sheffield Rd., Ithaca, NY 14850.