A brilliant attorney, a fierce advocate for human rights, and a fighter for the abolition of nuclear weapons, Peter Weiss died on Nov. 3 at the age of 99, just one month shy of his 100th birthday. The cause of death was old age, his family said.
Born in Vienna, Austria, in 1925 to a Jewish family, Peter fled with his family in 1938 to escape Nazi persecution, and lived briefly in France before finding refuge in New York City. This formative experience of injustice and displacement shaped his lifelong dedication to defending human rights and holding those who violate them accountable through the rule of law.
Peter was a devoted husband to Cora, who shared his advocacy for human rights and particularly women’s rights. Their partnership of 69 years exemplified a shared mission of advancing peace and justice around the world. They did everything together, from inspiring countless individuals to take up the cause of social justice to watching the sunset every summer on Martha’s Vineyard.
The Vineyard was at the center of their marriage from the very beginning. They spent part of their honeymoon in Menemsha, on what was referred to then as “Socialist Hill,” and shortly thereafter bought the Captain Flanders House, where they summered until moving to a property on Lighthouse Road in Aquinnah, which they bought communally with three other families. In 69 years, they never missed a summer on the Island, along with their three children, Judy, Tamara, and Danny. A favorite ritual for Peter was to drink a dry martini with Cora and his children by his side and watch the sunset over the North Shore, looking to the West.
They are survived by their children, Danny’s wife Anne Stewart, and their grandchildren, including Jules (Emily), Noah (Kelsey), Maria (Gabi), Catherine (Brianna), and Simon, his former son-in-law Gary, and a global community of activists and legal professionals who carry forward his vision of a more just and secure world.
Peter’s stories through the century of his life read like chapters in an epic novel. Serving in the U.S. Army during WWII at a top-secret prisoner of war camp outside Washington, D.C., he was among a rare group of German-speaking Jewish soldiers who hosted and interrogated Nazi POWs. After the war, he was stationed in Berlin, working to dismantle Nazi-aligned industrial cartels.
Following his service, Peter finished his undergraduate education at St. John’s College in Annapolis in 1949, where his study of the Great Books had a profound influence on his life and work. He earned his juris doctor from Yale Law School in 1952, and set off on a long professional legal career that included countless hours of pro bono work.
Peter joined Langner & Parry, an intellectual property law firm in New York City, in 1955. And by 1969, he was a founding partner of a successful international trademark firm, Weiss, Dawid, Fross & Lehrman. He represented a wide variety of clients, from Bozo the Clown and Laurel and Hardy to Chanel and Budweiser. He retired from trademark law at the age of 80.
With his education and a moral compass as strong as any, he never wavered in his belief that the rule of law should prevail.
He served as a founder and other leadership roles across many organizations, including the American Committee on Africa, Center for Constitutional Rights, Institute for Policy Studies, Lawyers Committee on Nuclear Policy, International Association of Lawyers Against Nuclear Arms, and New Jewish Narrative (formerly Americans for Peace now). In addition to his work to abolish nuclear weapons, he supported decolonization in Africa, and helped to write the constitution for the newly independent nation of Eritrea. He supported the U.S. civil rights movement, as well as an end to the American war in Vietnam, the dictatorship in Chile, and the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, to name a few. Peter was also a visionary leader in the fight against nuclear arms, which he saw as the ultimate threat to the human race.
His life was driven by many passions in addition to the law and the truth. He loved language — reading novels and poetry, completing the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle, and writing; Peter never missed giving a toast, and wrote one for every occasion. He had a well-known dry sense of humor, and his indomitable spirit, intellect, and compassion will continue to inspire generations to come.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to organizations supporting human rights and the abolition of nuclear weapons.
