Peter MacDonald Graham passed peacefully on the morning of September 11, 2024 in the company of some of the very caring staff at Amica Bayview Village. Peter was in his 95th year, having been born on March 24, 1929. His father, James, a World War 1 veteran, and his wife Margaret, were proprietors of The Wheatsheaf Inn, Popham Lane, North Waltham, England, the town in which Peter was born.

After secondary school at East Leigh County High School, Peter studied mechanical engineering on the Isle of Wight while apprenticing for Saro Laminated Wood Products Company, manufacturers of wood aircraft and other plywood and veneer panelling. This training in wood products well equipped Peter for the significant roles he would subsequently play in the Canadian wood products industry. Following graduation as an engineer, and before he immigrated to Canada in July 1952, Peter served the country of his birth as an officer and a pilot in the Royal Air Force, stationed in various locations in Europe and Africa, including Rhodesia. Having travelled in Europe and Africa, Peter decided to explore his prospects in Canada. He arrived in Quebec City on the Empress of Canada with few belongings and $200 in his pocket. There began his string of good luck. The customs officer arranged to provide lodgings for him. An investment banker at Royal Securities, Phillip Cumyn, hired Peter, still a young man in his twenties, to run the Guelph Plywood Company veneer and plywood plant in Mattawa, Ontario. It was in Mattawa that Peter met and subsequently married Rose Monsour, an award-winning elementary school teacher, with whom he enjoyed an enchanted marriage that lasted 50 years, until the untimely death of Rose in 2004.

Peter and Rose had three children who grew up to become a lawyer, a doctor and an investment banker. The investment banker followed in the footsteps of her mother Rose by later qualifying as an elementary school teacher.

When the Mattawa plant was sold by its owners, Peter took several of the senior management team with him to Maniwaki, Quebec where he took-over a newly operated veneer plant, Maki Veneer Corporation. Challenged by the availability of cutting rights, Maki was sold subsequently to La Société générale de financement de Quebec (SGFQ). Peter joined SGFQ as the sole senior English speaking executive and in that role provided strategic advice to the senior management of SGFQ, including Jacques Pariseau, on its various forest products related businesses.

Subsequently, Peter left SGFQ to establish and lead a national buying association of wholesalers and retailers of wood products. His final career was as the President and owner of Raymond and Heller Ltd., the oldest rug importing house in Canada. For the balance of his very successful career, Peter traveled the globe to source the finest hand main carpets from countries including India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and China that were then imported and sold in the major departments stores across Canada.

After the death of Rose, Peter enjoyed more than a decade together with Claire Baillargeon travelling extensively and enjoying fine dining on the West Island of Montreal.

In his final years, Peter was lovingly cared for by his children, Wendy, Shelley and Jeff. Peter is survived by his three children, his 8 grandchildren (Nikolaus, Krystina, Graeme, Rebecca, Isabel, Jennifer, Julia, and Nate) and his three great grandchildren (Sydney, Elliott and Axe).