Peter was born in Mineola, N.Y. on April 23, 1953 and grew up in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York. Peter and his wife Janet were married on September 19, 1987 in Cold Spring Harbor and lived in Babylon Village, Long Island until the events of Sept. 11, 2001 affected their lives. Both Peter and Janet, who was pregnant at the time, happened to be in lower Manhattan during the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The stress of the experience caused Janet to go into labor early, giving birth to son Aidan later that same day. Peter and Janet's story was featured on local news programs in New York, as well as channel 9, the NBC affiliate in Denver. Featured articles also appeared in the Telluride newspapers. The overall experience of 9/11 prompted the couple to move to their second home in Placerville, Colo. in March 2003. Peter began building their home in Placerville in 1991, and frequently visited the Telluride area until relocating here.
Peter's parents Karl Kask and Lehti Vooremaa emigrated from the Baltic country of Estonia in 1945 after it was invaded by Russia. In Estonia, Karl was an attorney and an alternate on the Estonian Olympic team for track and field. In the United States, Karl started a successful home improvement business. Lehti became an accomplished watercolor artist and Peter and Janet launched a website selling reprints of her work (lehtikask.com). Karl and Lehti met in Brooklyn, N.Y., settled in Seaford, Long Island and Karl built a home for his family in Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. The family spent their summers in Callicoon, N.Y., where they had a home on the Delaware River.
Peter was a professional engineer (PE) and civil/structural engineer and graduated with his master's degree in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. He was also a member of the Sigma Phi fraternity and a member and letter winner of the crew team. He was an engineer for more than thirty years, was self-employed and owned and operated his own business, Aluminex Services Company, for over 22 years.
Peter had worked on many commercial and residential engineering projects in the Telluride area, some in conjunction with Buckhorn Geotech firm of Montrose.
Peter was an accomplished engineer and a past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He also authored/co-authored several technical papers including "Home Solar Energy," published in the NASA Spinoff Annual Report in 1981, which featured a story on how Peter conceived and built a solar home/pool heating system for his family's home in Cold Spring Harbor.
In sixth grade, Peter and his class designed and built a half-scale replica of a Curtis Model D bi-plane with a 20-foot wingspan and 15 feet in length. To this day, it still hangs in the lobby of West Side Elementary School in Syosset, N.Y. Peter was listed as the foreman of the project at age 12.
Peter was committed to pioneering development work in solar energy and was the president of Solar Age Technologies (SolarTech), Inc., based in Troy, N.Y. He also designed and built a photovoltaic system that currently provides power to the Voorhees Computing Center at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y. Peter most recently designed and built the prototype of Solar Tech's solar tracker installed in the Telluride area, which produces electricity being delivered into the local power grid every day.
Peter was an avid skier, tennis player, baseball player, cyclist, volleyball player, bowler and also liked to roller blade. He bowled a 216 game with his father when he was 10 years old. He even once rode his bicycle from Cornell University to his home in Cold Spring Harbor (approx. 250 miles). During one spring break, Peter and a friend bicycled almost 600 miles in Florida from Orlando to St. Petersburg, the Tamiami Trail to Miami and then back to Orlando.
Peter also participated in Telluride's 4th of July parade as a member of the marching group "Men Without Rhythm."
As one business associate pointed out, "Peter was one of the finest human beings that I have gotten to know in either my personal or business life." Peter wanted to be remembered for his family and all that he accomplished professionally. He will forever be loved and forever missed.
A memorial service for Peter has been scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. at the Christ Presbyterian Church, 434 W. Columbia Ave., Telluride.
In lieu of flowers, it is requested that donations be made to one of the following: The Carcinoid Cancer Awareness Network, Inc., 2480 Hull Avenue, North Bellmore, NY 11710 (Maryann Wahmann 516/781-7814); or the Peter Kask Memorial Medical Fund, WestStar Bank, P.O. Box 487, Telluride (970/728-2000). This account was established to offset medical expenses.
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