Peter Grosz Memorial Letters

[Taz]

I spoke with Lilian Grosz, Peter's wife, the day before he died and today, Monday, 2 October. Peter had gone into a local hospital to have a cyst on his cerebellum drained on Thursday, 21 September. Once in the hospital, his condition deteriorated rapidly and draining the cyst was considered too high risk. Peter continued to do worse, developed a blood clot in his heart and quickly passed away a week later.

Lilian has received phone calls from as far away as Berlin from Peter's friends and colleagues who wanted to attend the memorial service. The service is being held in a small Quaker facility with only room for a limited number of relatives and local friends and church members. Peter and Lilian lived in Princeton, NJ for 54 years and were married for 55 years, so the service will already be overfilled with just locals and family.

Lilian asked me to ask everyone to not plan on attending the memorial service, but instead write a memorial letter about Peter. Peter's archives will go to a museum in Berlin, and Lilian intends to include our letters in that permanent archive.

If you would like to write a letter, but do not have the Grosz address, send me a PM and I will give you the address.

God bless, Peter. We will all miss your friendship, knowledge, and generosity to those who knew you well and to those you barely knew. You left a huge, and probably unfillable, hole in the history of WW-I aviation.

Taz
Terry Phillips

[StephenLawson]

Mentor, friend, and guide-post to this young enthusiast for so many years. I remember asking him about the colours to the Fokker Dr.I triplane. I learned quickly that he had no concern for colours, but more for what was under the skin of these machines. His word was worth a thousand pictures. He gave freely to those who asked him. He taught us many valuable lessons. We shall not see his kind again. Zum wohl und Prost Peter. We miss you.

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Dear Lilian:
The friendship between Peter and I began over thirty years ago when Peter and I collaborated on the Roland D.VI fighter story , "The Beknighted Roland" for Air Enthusiast Quarterly, No.3. Over those thirty years Peter has graced me with his unstinting generousity. To sit and share a cigar with Peter and discuss the various aspects of World War I aviation developements. His enthusiasm for our favorite subject, German Aircraft. I shall miss Peter and realized our lives have been diminished with his passing, leaving a void that can not be filled. My heart goes out to you in your sorrow.
In his shadow I hope to find solace.
May his sky be ever bluer,
Dan-San Abbott

[Roadhog]

Dear Lillian and Forum mates, In the year and a half that I knew Peter as a member of this Forum, I came to know him as a genuine expert who was always ready and willing to share his vast wealth of knowledge with the rest of us. When it came to a genuine poser, he was willing to provide the answer or point us in the right direction so that we could research the answer ourselves. In that respect he made all of us better students of History. Peter was a gentle man whose warm sense of humor made him seem to be a personal friend to each of us although most of us had never met him face-to-face.

He will be a hard war horse to replace if that is even possible. I just wanted to add my voice to this tribute to a great man whose likes we may never meet again. Like most of my friends here, I miss him greatly and weep for our mutual loss. God bless you. Major Richard Scott Price, USAR (Retired)