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| Pete (2nd from left) with wife Sandy, son Bill; John Olesky, Paula Tucker |
Pete Geiger, the Beacon Journal reporter with the best knowledge of the inner workings of Akron area televangelists, passed away in his sleep Thursday, Jan. 29 after an evening with friends on the Internet.
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| Sandy & Pete on wedding day |
created by shopping magnate J.C. Penney 38 miles west of St. Augustine.
They spent 13 years teaching English in Zuunmod, Mongolia, a provincial capital city of 20,000, where Sandy was director of the college and Pete edited and published a newsletter for American ex-patriate English teachers in Mongolia. They sponsored a kindergarten class for orphans and disadvantaged children.
Most Mongolians are Buddhist with a few Moslems. The country was under Soviet rule until 1989.
Mongolia is bordered by Russia and China. The Mongol Empire was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206.
Pete and Sandy moved to St. Augustine in 2007. They had round trip tickets to return to Mongolia, but Sandy's quintuple bypass open-heart surgery scrubbed the return plans. Pete used both their return tickets as a round trip to Mongolia to straighten out details for them.
Pete was part of the BJ reporting team that won a 1987 Pulitzer Prize for the general news reporting of Sir James Goldsmith’s greenmail attack on Goodyear, which had 13,000 employees. Goldsmith walked away with millions of dollars but Goodyear and Akron were never the same.
Pete's BJ career included working on an investigative team, the business desk, editorial writer, medical writer, automotive writer, religion writer, computer columnist and State Desk reporter.
He was the BJ expert on Akron Baptist Temple's Dr. Dallas Billington, a tire-builder from Kentucky who began with a Sunday School in Reimer Elementary School on Manchester Road, and his son, Charles Billington, and Rex Humbard’s Cathedral of Tomorrow empire.
Pete, Sandy and their son, Bill, who works with 911 dispatch in the Detroit area, had lunch 10 days earlier with former BJ newsroom co-workers John Olesky and Paula Tucker in Leesburg, Florida. John and Paula are vacationing in The Villages, Florida – 14 miles from Leesburg -- from Jan. 1-March 31.
Among the other Geiger children, Ginger lives in Canton and Roger in Gainesville, Florida. Pete’s sister lives in Germany.
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| Pete & Sandy in Mongolia |
In 2010 Sandy and Pete went to Ireland for their 49th wedding anniversary, where Pete’s maternal grandmother, Florence McCullough, emigrated from Armagh to Philadelphia at age 12 with her parents in 1898.
Pete, Sandy, Paula and John had an Orlando reunion three years ago during another Florida trip by Paula and John.
In 2011 Pete for the third time had some veins in his legs collapsed so that the remaining veins could provide better circulation.
Sandy said that she and Pete discussed who they would want to meet in Heaven. Pete opted for Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, but because Jefferson was deist.
Pete added a caveat: “If he’s there.”
Broadus Raines Funeral Home in Green Cove Springs, Florida is handling the arrangements. Pete will be cremated. A memorial service will be scheduled when relatives can be there.
In lieu of flowers, Sandy asked that donations be made to the Residents Aid Fund of Penney Farms Retirement Community, 3495 Hoffan Street, Penney Farms, FL 32079. It helps defray costs since residents stay in the complex even after they run out of money.
The check should be made out to Residents Aid Association and mailed to
Penney Retirement Community
P.O. Box 555
Penney Farms, FL 32079
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