Charles John Petre – 50th Reunion Essay

Charles John Petre

Date of Death: 30-Mar-1994

College: Silliman

(Charlie (Pete) Petre died March 30, 1994 shortly after writing an essay for the 25th Reunion Classbook. This is a shorter version of that essay, which can be found on the Class Website.)

The twenty-five years since graduation have been spent seeking out and responding to challenges, mostly business and career challenges, but lately, with three teenage boys, the challenges have turned more toward family issues—guiding these boys through the philosophical, moral, and intellectual conundrums of the nineties. Interestingly, I also have a seven-year-old daughter who gets to share in the problems of teenagers in the nineties as well as becoming a teenager after the millennium—who can even begin to imagine what challenges she will face?

After graduation, I was off to New York City to work for Citibank. During the next two years of living in Manhattan, I shared apartments with Tom McNamee and then Jeff Wheelwright. The fun ran out one evening when, returning from the grocery store, I became another mugging victim. I pressured Citibank for a more interesting locale and ended up in Manila, where I lived for the next five years. I used that time to travel extensively in Asia, India, and the Mid-East, and in 1973 to marry Eileen Toner. Many of my Silliman roommates and Yale friends attended our wedding.

In 1976 we moved to Taipei, Taiwan, where first Nate, then Ben, and finally Luke were born. While in Taiwan and previously in Manila, I was chief executive officer of a joint-venture investment bank in which Citibank had a minority interest, but I had a management contract to operate the venture.

We bought our first house in 1980. We moved to New Canaan, Connecticut, and I started my second of what would become three stints working in Manhattan. Two years later I had been talked into moving out to Los Angeles to open up the west coast investment banking office for Citibank. That stint lasted only two years, and it ended my association with Citibank. During that time, however, I was able to renew my friendship with Walt Rose, and with Tom Moore and Mike Anderson who had been roommates of ours during senior year.

I signed on with the First National Bank of Chicago which wanted to open an investment banking office in New York. So in 1984 we returned to our house in Connecticut, and I began commuting to Manhattan once more. Only this time I also had responsibilities in London and frequently traveled to Geneva. What a life! I wasn’t getting to see any of my kids, couldn’t participate in their activities, nor did I see much of Eileen. In addition, Martha had arrived to enliven our lives.

In August of 1992 we moved to Fredonia, New York, about an hour south of Buffalo, where I am actively conducting business. Child rearing has become our highest priority, but who says that we shouldn’t be able to enjoy life while our kids invent new ways to challenge us intellectually, test our moral strength, and generally try to put us through hell.