Peter was born in 1956 in Pontiac, Illinois, grew up nearby in Dwight and Streator, graduated from Western Illinois University, and ran a pet store near Streator for 28 years. Although he always lived in Illinois, he traveled with his family in most of the US states, as well as Japan, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and the Caribbean. He saw the world's surface from airplanes, saw below its surface in caves, and to 200 feet below the ocean's surface scuba-diving. And with his telescope and his imagination he saw the stars--and beyond. He died of kidney cancer in 2008.