Peter John Roberts, known to family and friends as Pete, died on August 16, 2026, at the age of 88. To his family he was also Dad, Grandpa, and Gigi—an affectionate, encouraging, deeply sentimental man whose curiosity, generosity, and inclination to question almost everything shaped the lives of those around him.
Pete was born on October 20, 1937, in Queens, New York, to Charles Stephen Roberts and Francine Greene Roberts. He grew up there with his younger brother, Christopher James Roberts, until the family moved to Mamaroneck, New York, when Pete was 12. Recognized as exceptionally bright from an early age, he skipped a grade in elementary school. He was introspective and tended toward a small number of close friends. As a teenager, he once rescued a child who had fallen from a dock unnoticed by the child’s parents.
Pete attended high school in Mamaroneck and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. On his first day at Dickinson, he met Brenda Naomi Roberts, who, remarkably, already shared his last name. Before Pete even knew Brenda, someone noticed their matching names and asked whether they were married. Pete answered, “Not yet.” He was smitten from the beginning. They married in Highland Park, New Jersey in 1958, beginning a marriage that lasted 68 years. Throughout their life together, Pete would say that when he looked at Brenda, he still saw his girlfriend. Their marriage also joined two families whose parents came to deeply love their new son- and daughter-in-law.
After graduating from Dickinson in 1958, Pete earned a master’s degree in physics from Purdue University. He served in the U.S. Army in Lexington, Kentucky, as a computer specialist when computing itself was still a young discipline. He then joined Draper Laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as a software engineer, remaining there for more than 25 years. He was particularly proud of his work related to computer programs used in the Apollo missions. Later, after retiring, he ran a small Macintosh consulting business, helping many members of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Newton where he and Brenda were long-term members of the congregation.
Pete’s fascination with technology extended far beyond his work. He was an early adopter by instinct, eager not simply to possess a new technology but to understand what could be done with it. He bought the original Macintosh when it was first released. When sampled keyboards and digital recording were cutting-edge technologies, he was already using them to record music he created at the piano. He embraced digital photography and kept pace with rapidly advancing camera technology. He also undertook the painstaking work of digitally archiving many of the family’s slides and photographs, preserving decades of family history.
Music was a significant part of Pete’s life. He received formal piano training when he was young and returned to lessons for some years in the 1970s. At other times, he preferred to play improvisationally and develop music of his own, sometimes entering long periods of intense piano playing and recording. His musical tastes were wide-ranging, from classical music and soft jazz to Brazilian bossa nova and the upbeat music he listened to while exercising. For years, he also diligently made music cassette tapes for his mother-in-law, a small but characteristic expression of both his love of music and his care for family.
Pete and Brenda had two sons, David Peter Roberts, born in 1961, and John Charles Roberts, born in 1963. In 1967, the family moved to Newton, Massachusetts, which remained home for nearly six decades. Pete was a hands-on father at a time when that was less customary, and he and Brenda created a family life rich in experiences and traditions. Camping and hiking were favorites, as were a memorable cross-country trip in 1972 and a trip to visit extended family in Brazil in 1980.
Motorcycling was one of Pete’s particular passions, and characteristically, when he discovered something he loved, he looked for ways to include his family. He enjoyed riding for pleasure with Brenda or one of his sons riding on back. In the 1970s, Pete participated in a community of trail riders and sometimes brought a son and an extra motorcycle for meticulously planned rides. Pete commuted to work by bicycle in the 1970s and later by motorcycle through the 1980s and 1990s—even during New England winters. In 1986, he and Brenda traveled by motorcycle throughout the northeastern United States and Canada, often staying at bed-and-breakfasts.
As his engagement with motorcycles receded, photography became another way for Pete and Brenda to explore together. In the 2000s they took extended photography trips, including to the Great Smoky Mountains, coastal Maine, and the Grand Canyon.
Pete’s interests often came in periods of intense focus. A problem at work, a home-improvement project, piano and recording, photography, studying a language, or planning a trip could capture his attention for long stretches. On another front, he had an unusual ability to imagine what might go wrong and then plan for it. His sons could count on him throughout their adult lives for many things, including a careful explanation of potential problems and how each of them might be avoided.
His intellectual curiosity ranged even further. Pete was fascinated by science, engineering, and technology and was deeply concerned with societal fairness. At age 60, after his parents had died, he discovered that his ancestors were all Jewish. The discovery began a lasting exploration of Judaism and Jewish culture, including a period of studying Hebrew. He also studied Portuguese and Spanish. Those interests had a personal dimension as well. Pete regarded his daughters-in-law, Windy, David’s partner, who is from Venezuela, and Carla, John’s partner, who is from Brazil, as daughters, and he was a strong father figure to both. As the family grew to include people with roots in Germany, Quebec, and Korea, Pete took great pride in its increasingly international character.
Pete was also extraordinarily generous, though he would not have described himself that way. His generosity was quiet and matter-of-fact. He gave his time, help, money, and possessions readily. When he replaced something or no longer needed it, his instinct was rarely to sell it; he would give it to someone who could make better use of it. Over the years, that included seven of his eight motorcycles. He was simply happy to be in a position to give. To Pete, it wasn’t generosity so much as the obvious thing to do.
And Pete always had something to say. With family and in one-on-one conversation, he was talkative, speculative, and endlessly interested in qualifications and possibilities. A yes-or-no question was rarely, in Pete’s estimation, truly a yes-or-no question. There was context to consider, assumptions to examine, and an explanation to be given. After one of his long and confidently delivered soliloquies, his children and grandchildren sometimes asked, “Is that true, or are you making it up?” Pete enjoyed being teased this way and would respond with a good chuckle.
For all his intellectual intensity, Pete was openly affectionate. He greeted people with hugs. He regularly talked about how lucky he was because of Brenda and the rest of his family, often choking up as he said it. He was deeply involved in the lives of his six grandchildren through their teenage years and took enormous pleasure in their development as adults and the generation that followed.
In 2025, Pete and Brenda moved to The Falls at Cordingly Dam in Newton. Pete is survived by Brenda, his wife of 68 years; his sons, David and John; their partners, Windy and Carla; his grandchildren (& partners), Angela (& Dane), Alex (& Maya), Danny (& Yunsun), Nicolas (& Charlotte), Emma (& John), and Thomas (& Louis); and his great-grandchildren, Sibyl, Winizo, and Lyla.
His family will miss his love, his hugs, and his encouragement as well as his generosity and devotion. They will also miss the experience of talking with Pete: his inclination to question everything and his ability to steer an ordinary conversation somewhere no one expected it to go. There was always another qualification, another possibility, another question worth asking—and another idea worth exploring.
The family will host a celebration of Pete's life at 2pm on December 22, at the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Newton. All are welcome.