Updated May 28
More than 350 people crowded inside the Chilmark Community Center Monday to show Peter Simon something he’d shown to so many others — love.
The two-hour ceremony featured anecdotes and themes (tubs, photography, and his weird fascination with weather, among them) that, at times, should have come with an R rating for nudity. And, speaking of ratings, we learned from one of Peter’s friends that he loved to rate things, from Vineyard days to women on the beach.
Peter was legendary for showing up to events with bare feet and, as a number of his friends mentioned, that isn’t the only thing he liked to bare.
Charley Furlong described his friend as a “mischievous boy.” He told a story about a reviewing session Peter had for one his must-have Martha’s Vineyard calendars. When the slide show got to July, there was a photo of Peter naked. And when Furlong described what he saw (we can’t repeat it because this is a family newspaper), there were knowing chuckles among those gathered.
“His life really was epic in many ways,” Furlong said.
Peter was described as a loyal and loving friend. He struck up a conversation with Alex MacDonald at the Black Dog as he was eating lunch with his then 2-year-old daughter. Peter saw an opportunity for friendship between the girl and his son, Willie, MacDonald recalled.
Some 30 years later, the families have traveled together, and shared so many Vineyard memories, many of them chronicled by Peter’s legendary photography, MacDonald said.
“He could have legally changed his name from Peter Simon to Peter Pan,” MacDonald said with a nod toward Peter’s kind demeanor. “We are all fortunate to have lived in the time of Peter Simon.”
The celebration included songs by keyboardist Ken Rhoads who performed “Sing to Me,” Kate Taylor singing “Beautiful Road,” and folk singer Tom Rush singing “The Dreamer” — each of them with fitting lyrics. There was also an impromptu ukulele performance by Ed Wise.
Although Peter’s sisters could not attend, Joanna and Lucy paid tribute to their little brother through letters. Carly Simon wrote a song about her brother two days after he died, the lyrics read by his wife Ronni, who kept her composure throughout.
“Today, no horn blows. Today, no rock and roll. Today, the main thing is I’ve lost you. Now the skies are gray, perhaps tomorrow they’ll turn blue. Today, all I feel that’s true is we lost you. Once we were so tight, between us so much laughter. You turned me on to Dylan, and the Beatles not long after. We had a language all our own, it had an impish undertone. But today the phone rings with a horrible tone because it’s not you.”
So many of the speakers touched on Peter’s easy friendship. “That a human being can be so consistently loving, empathetic — a little crazy — very smart, totally incisive, perfectly honest,” David Silver said. “He really totally taught me how to be honest. You could not avoid it with him.”
He called Peter a loyal friend. “I miss him every minute,” Silver said. “There’s a hole in the atmosphere of my psyche, but his soul keeps coming through.”
Perry Garfinkel took off his shoes and tossed them into the crowd, again to knowing laughter. “He was first and foremost a photographer,” Garfinkel said, noting that Peter would have been at Monday’s event circling the perimeter snapping photos.
It was through Garfinkel that Peter met his wife, Ronni. Ronni was renting a room at Garfinkel’s apartment, and he had a gathering to watch the Red Sox in the World Series in 1975 because he was the only one with a color TV.
Garfinkel talked about Simon’s important work capturing the Civil Rights movement, communal living, rock and roll legends like Robert Plant, Bob Marley, Joan Baez, and Bob Dylan: “To him the image was God.”
Rameshwar Das, another longtime friend from Peter’s hippie days, talked about flipping through his photographs recently and seeing “one great shot after another.” He described Peter’s work as “magic,” and mentioned his signature style of framing his photographs with a black border.
Stephen Davis, his college roommate at Boston University, said Peter made two confessions before he died, one of them about the restaurant altercation between Peter and Bill Murray at Lola’s that made national headlines. “Peter was taking a picture of Bill Murray at Lola’s last summer,” Davis said. “It’s true.”
At the time, Peter denied he was shooting a photo of Murray. Murray tossed a cup of water at Peter, prompting him to call the police, though he never pressed charges. Peter was on assignment for The Times shooting his Vineyard Scenes column.
Davis said afterward that he didn’t hear the confession firsthand. Peter was likely joking, because Ronni Simon said she looked through his camera and there were no photos of Murray on it.
Mark Shanahan, a reporter for the Boston Globe who became friends with Peter while on assignment on the Vineyard, talked about how Peter had met so many famous people, particularly musicians, but asked him if he’d ever met Harvey Leonard, the Channel 5 meteorologist.
Both men were diagnosed with illnesses around the same time, and shared their fears in frequent phone calls. “Peter was a sweet, genuine, funny, enlightened, sweet, loyal fellow,” Shanahan said.
Peter died in November after a battle with cancer. The time between his death and the memorial service allowed for a more upbeat tribute. There was more laughter than tears.
“We had a wonderful life together — incredible adventures,” Ronni said, noting how many concerts she saw with him through the years. “We used to call it Peter’s perks.”
Peter was a loving husband and father, and family was important to him, she said. “People who met Peter for the first time, they’d think they have a good friend. He had a gift.”
Ronni looked over the crowd and took it all in: “This is what Peter would have loved.”