Friends remember man who died on Mount Rainier
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His visit to Washington state to climb Mount Rainier was no different. "He was very methodical," Virginia Hanson, a family friend, said today. "This trip was well-planned."
Cooley and his climbing partner, Scott Richards, attempted the difficult Liberty Ridge route up the mountain, which the pair had attempted once before.
Three years ago, bad weather forced them to seek an easier route.
This time, the climb ended in tragedy when Cooley suffered head injuries in a fall Saturday and died despite his friend's attempts to save him.
More than 2,400 miles away, as fog clouded the view of Maine's Casco Bay, friends gathered at St. Alban's Episcopal church, where Cooley sang in the choir, to share memories of his life.
"He was humble," Hanson said. "He was steadfast, reliable, compassionate and intelligent."
Cooley grew up in West Hartford, Conn., and attended St. Paul's prep school. From there, he went to Yale, where he majored in economics and graduated in 1986. He later earned a master's in business administration from Stanford University in California.
He and his wife, Allene, moved to Maine from San Francisco in 1994, when their daughter Sarah, now 11, was a baby. They had two more children: Alexander, 9, and Robert, 6.
Cooley loved children and coached youth soccer and tee-ball.
"He would sit at a party and play the piano, with only kids around to listen," Hanson said.
Cooley's first job in Maine was at L.L. Bean. But he worked for the past eight years at Idexx Laboratories, a veterinary pharmaceutical company. Friend David Sherman said he was not sure exactly what Cooley did there.
"Peter worked incredibly hard at everything he did at Idexx," Sherman said. "But it was not something he talked about with friends."
Instead, he discussed books, films, his children and his love of the outdoors.
"He was a real avid reader, a real student," Sherman said. "He was the brightest guy I had the pleasure of knowing."
Idexx president Jonathan Ayers issued a statement on behalf of the company, where Cooley was a director of commercial marketing. "Words cannot lessen the shock that Peter's passing has left," Ayers said.
Scott Richards' wife, Pamela, flew to Seattle Monday to be with her husband. Richards, a father of two, grew up in Cape Elizabeth.
Friends said that the men shared a devotion to their families as well as their passion for mountain climbing.
"They're just incredible men," friend Wendy Keeler said. "They're both as good as it gets."
Friends in Cape Elizabeth said that their joy when Richards returns would be tempered by the knowledge that Cooley is never coming home. But they said that after a decade in Maine, Cooley had created a network of friends who are drawing together to support his family.
"Peter lived life to the fullest," Sherman said. "His love and devotion to his family attracted people to him."