Peter Bloch

Westport- Peter Conrad Bloch passed away on May 27, 2015 after fighting two difficult cancers over the past two years. In his last days, he was surrounded by his loving family at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Hospital. He was born in Cedarhurst, New York on June 8, 1944 and died just short of his 71st birthday. Peter was the son of the late Konrad Emil Bloch and Lore Teutsch Bloch, who were fortunate to be able to immigrate to the USA from Germany in the late 1930's. He was married to Marianne "Mimi" Bloch for just over 45 loving and adventurous years, and is survived by his three wonderful children, Benjamin Nieman Bloch (Venice, Ca.), Emilie Bloch Sondel (Madison), Jesse Sondel (Madison), his sister, Susan Elizabeth Bloch (Philadelphia), and two much loved grandchildren, Jordan and Evan Sondel (Madison). He is survived also by his sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, Vicki and Ken Alterwitz (Palm Springs, Ca.), Diana and Michael Rothenberg (New York, N.Y.) and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces and nephews, all of whom he loved dearly. His family includes Anne Bloch and Lenny and Linda Bloch (New York), Jeffrey Bloch (New Zealand), Evelyn Berkowitz (South Africa), Lewis and Lars Koch, Anne Behrmann, Ned, Susan, Scott, Jenna, Marc, and Dawn Kalin, Paul and Sheri Sondel and their family members.

Peter graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy and received a B.A. degree in French Literature from Harvard. He received an M.A. degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. After earning his Ph.D. in development economics from the University of California-Berkeley in 1973, Peter taught at the University of Dakar in Senegal as well as Tufts University and Grinnell College. He was a senior research scientist at the Land Tenure Center and taught at both the Department of Economics and the Department of Forestry and Wildlife Ecology in the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison until he retired. He and his wife Mimi are still affiliated faculty in the African Studies Program at the UW-Madison. Throughout his career, he did research and also consulted with many organizations and governments on economic and land reform all over the world. After retiring, he decided to pursue a law degree, and was a member of the California and Wisconsin Bar.

For most of his career, he lived and worked in Madison, Wisconsin and moved recently to Westport, Wisconsin. He was politically active and recently was President of the Waunakee-Westport Grassroots Organization of Waunakee as well as serving on the Historical Committee in the Town of Westport.

He fought his cancer with optimism and snorkeling trips in many beautiful places until the end of his life, and was snorkeling in Belize a week before his death. He loved his family and friends dearly, as well as bird watching and his garden.

We are grateful to his doctors and nursing staff at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Carbone Cancer Center and to all his friends and family members who helped support Peter and Mimi over the past two years.

A private family service was held Friday, May 29, 2015 at the Gates of Heaven Synagogue, and a public memorial service will be planned in the future.
In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate donations in his name to the ACLU of Wisconsin, or the Pancreatic Cancer Research Task Force at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Carbone Cancer Center. Please share your memories at www.CressFuneralService.com .

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