A six-year veteran of the Vermont House, Peter got his first real look at the Legislature growing up in Montpelier and visiting the capitol from time to time, and even driving to school around the back of the building when a road used to pass through there.
Peter attended the Montpelier Public School system, graduating from Montpelier High School in 1982. It was there he fell in love with a classmate, Mary Greiner, a Cornwall native who moved to Montpelier when her parents divorced many years before.
Peter and Mary dated through college, and upon graduation, married in 1986 in order to join the Peace Corps together. They served from 1987-1989 as agro-forestry volunteers in rural Paraguay, working with farmers to help them preserve their dwindling forest land and to plant trees for future generations.
In 1990, they settled in Cornwall, where Peter began a 15-year career as a reporter and then news editor of the Addison Independent.
At the end of 2004, Peter changed careers and started a nearly 10-year period as a dairy labor specialist, helping farms throughout northern New England hire, train and retain their frontline workers.
Leaving the newspaper also freed up Peter to commit more time to public service. In 2005, he ran for a vacant seat on the Middlebury Union High/Middle School board, and has served as a school board member since, including several years as chair of that board and of the Addison Central School District board following unification of the district.
He also led the effort to secure the LaValley House property next to the Cornwall town hall in order to preserve the contents of the historic store, and to give the town control of a crucial piece of land to plan its future.
Peter is a 17-year member of the Cornwall Volunteer Fire Department, and spent many years coaching area youth in the Champlain Valley Little League, where he served several years as president.
Peter started and has owned Vermont Move Management since 2015.
Peter was elected to the Vermont House in 2016 representing Cornwall, Goshen, Hancock, Leicester, Ripton and Salisbury, and is currently ranking member of the House Education Committee.
Peter and Mary raised three sons in Cornwall, who are now young adults – a college student, a lawyer and a high school teacher. They are frequently top of mind as Peter thinks about the future of Vermont, wanting to preserve what’s best, but not being afraid to take bold steps to keep it moving forward.
