Peter Wotton was born in Pasadena, California, in 1920. He attended Princeton University from 1938-1942, graduating with a degree in English literature. During World War II he served in the U.S. Armed Forces in the Pacific and in Europe from 1942-1946.
For the next 17 years, he worked in marketing, advertising, and public relations for a number of firms in New York and Connecticut. In 1963 he switched careers to public health administration. He received a Masters Degree in public health from Yale University in 1967. He worked as an administrator and planner in hospitals working in health education, psychiatric administration, and counseling in Connecticut until 1979 when he moved to Eugene, Oregon. In Oregon, he continued his work as an administrator in community health and senior services and as an in-home care provider.
Peter was active in the community as a member of the Unitarian Church and the Eugene Peace Choir. He served on a number of advisory committees and boards dealing with human rights, public health, senior citizens, the rights of aging, disabled services, and grief counseling. Peter was also a journalist, and from 1982 until his death in 1996, he broadcast a weekly commentary on KLCC radio in Eugene which he called “Elderberry Wine.” His commentaries focused on issues of interest to older people and the processes of living and growing older. In addition to the weekly radio broadcasts, Peter covered similar topics in the “Elderberry Wine” columns he wrote for local newspapers.
Peter married five times and was survived by his wife Carol Browne Wotton, son George, sister Mariah Marvin, and several step-daughters and step-sons. He had a heart attack in 1977 and was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1980. He died on November 3, 1996.
From the guide to the Peter Wotton Papers, 1933-1998, (Lane Community College (Eugene, Or.) Archives)
