Peter Bennett — one of Staples High School’s most legendary teachers, who shaped thousands of lives during a 33-year career as a social studies teacher — died May 19, in Virginia. He was 88, and had suffered a short period of declining health.
Fittingly for a lover of history, he was born on July 4, 1936, in Providence. His father was The Right Rev. Granville Gaylord Bennett, the 8th Episcopal bishop of Rhode Island.
He graduated from Amherst College in 1958, then earned graduate certification in secondary education at Wesleyan University.
He served 2 terms in the Connecticut National Guard, as a corporal.
Peter married Ellen Duckworth in 1958. They enjoyed more than 66 years of teaching and exploring the world together.
At Staples, Peter was an early proponent, and elected member, of the Staples Governing Board, That innovative group — comprised of administrators, teachers and students — made nearly all decisions for the school in the 1970s, except for personnel and funding.
Former colleague Phil Woodruff — himself a legendary social studies teacher — called Peter “scholarly, thoughtful and precise — an artist of the blackboard. He truly cared about kids, and they knew it. He had the same high standards for himself and the youngsters.”
Peter Bennett
In addition to teaching, Peter wrote a 57-page teachers’ manual for the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, called “What Happened on Lexington Green.” He continued to lecture and speak on many topics throughout his retirement.
A particular focus of his teaching was about India, Asia, China and Japan. He was associated with the Asia Society in New York City. As ambassadors for Air India, he and Ellen gave workshops for travel agents, sharing their first-hand experiences and enthusiasm for the country.
Peter took his family to New Delhi for his sabbatical year in 1977-78. He and Ellen returned several times, to visit friends made there.
After retiring from teaching, he lived Virginia for almost 30 years — first in Williamsburg, then in a retirement community in Irvington.
Peter and Ellen continued to travel in retirement. They saw the Great Wall of China, and visited Tibet, France, England, New Zealand and the Panama Canal.
A former baseball, football and basketball player, he was also an accomplished golfer, with single-digit handicap. In Virginia he enjoyed lawn bowling, and played in competitive tournaments.
A self-taught guitar player, Peter also enjoyed the banjo, and tried the sitar. He spent many retirement years in barbershop groups. He and Ellen also sang together in the Chesapeake Chorale.
The Episcopal church was a constant in Peter’s life. In Connecticut, he served on the Southport Trinity Church vestry.
Peter’s is survived by his wife Ellen; children: Jennifer Richard Ruth), Jonathan (Susanna Breese) and Joshua Corrette-Bennett (Stephanie Corrette-Bennett); grandchildren Madeline and Dove Corrette-Bennett; nephew, Robert Gwin III and family, and the families of his half-sister, Virginia-Moulds. He was predeceased by his half sisters Elizabeth Gwin and Virginia Moulds.
A service was held at Grace Episcopal Church in Kilmarnock, Virginia. He was held in the Grace Episcopal Church cemetery.
Donations in Peter’s name may be made to Amherst College.
Godspeed Mr. Bennett
I had Mr. Bennett for Sophomore Social Studies. This class at the time was by “invitation only.” I went on to major in Social Studies/History/Secondary Education at Springfield College and Valparaiso University. I had some great teachers but I always viewed them in comparison to Peter Bennett. Few came close.
Great teacher.
I had him for an Asian Studies class. He was indeed a wonderful teacher!
Peter Bennett was my favorite teacher at Staples. A very very long time ago.
Peter Bennett taught me AP World History in my senior year, 66-67, memorable for teaching renaissance history via characteristics of Northern European painting vs Southern European painting. For the exam we had to identify previously unseen paintings as northern or southern and explain why and how the identified characteristics reflected sociological/historical ‘facts on the ground’. Fascinating, fun, memorable. Among the best teachers in my life (along with English teacher Alan Chalk and US history teacher Mr Robert(?) Hall).
He was my favorite teacher at Staples, by far. Am amazing teacher!!
The Staples High School Social Studies Department for this member of the class of 1975 was a feast of educational opportunities in the ground floor of Building Nine. I studied under Jack Colbert, David Harrison, Richard Mott, and David E. LaPonsee. I was keenly aware of the many gifts of Peter Bennett, but sadly, I was never a student in his classroom. He was a remarkable individual on the Staples Governing Board and his influence for the betterment of students, faculty, and the entire educational enterprise at Staples cannot be overstated. Peter was quiet, assertive, kind, and possessed a singular personal power and brilliant intellect. When I went to Duke University, Peter’s influence on my study of history continued, even though I had never been formally his student. During my junior year, I took an experimental full-year introduction to the history of the Islamic world. I did so not only because of the talents of the professors from Duke and UNC-Chapel Hll who team-taught this innovative class, but also because my failure to study Asian cultures at Staples in Peter’s class left a large gap that I filled only by taking this course two years after graduating from Staples. I did not know that Peter came to Westport via graduate studies at Wesleyan University, and it occurs to me that it was via graduate work at Wesleyan that Mr. LaPonsee also came to join the remarkable Westport Public Schools faculty.
I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Peter Bennett, my Staples colleague for 25 years and friend for 65. He was extraordinary—the most creative teacher (who else would write on a blackboard with black chalk?), devoted family man, patient listener, and loyal friend. Among a handful of gifted M.A.T. graduates who joined the Staples social studies department in the 1960s, Peter was preeminent.
I am saddened by news of Peter’s passing. As a new teacher as Staples I found conversations and discussions with him invariably led to new, valuable insights.
My condolences to all those dear to and beloved by him.
While I was on the Staples HS faculty — from 1968 -1995 — the Social Studies Department was populated with the most extraordinary teachers, Peter Bennett certainly among them. I suspect students never again experienced such superb teaching at their colleges. How fortunate we all were.
As a colleague of Peter’s I knew him to be an inventive educative with integrity and compassion. I’m grateful our paths crossed.
I first read Edmund Morgan’s The Stamp Act Crisis for MR. Bennett’s US History class (fall 1964), a writer with style, precision and command of facts. (We went straight to the Revolution. I objected. “We don’t have time, Bob,” Mr. B replied.) “It isn’t just the facts,” he said as we argued after a class as to what a section of Schlesinger’s The Age of Jackson meant. “It’s the interpretation that counts as much and that will change as you learn more facts.” Which is the point of his What Happened pamphlet. Of which my class was a guinea pig for an early draft version as we built up the story using his mimeographed handouts for home work. Which said pamphlet I found at the Concord (Mass.) Free Public Library PLEASE TAKE ME weekly give-away book pile 20-plus years ago. Which said pamphlet is behind me in the room where all of my Concord history material resides. I am not an historian because of Peter Bennett. I was a better historian sooner because of Peter Bennett.
Coda 1: PB appears in a poem by one of my Staples classmates (Yep, I came across it in a book of his at CFPL.): Mark Halliday (see https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/mark-halliday). The theme was responsibility and, to mangle the line, “I did not want to disappoint Mr. Bennett.”
Coda 2: In another classroom, late in the 1965 spring, a brilliantly sunny afternoon that created deep colors outside, I looked up & out the window and there was Mr. Bennett, just behind 1st base in his tight-fitting baseball gear, coaching grounders’ practice to the infield players. “Oh, yeah,” I remembered, “he played ball at Amherst.”
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Mr. Bennett was my HR teacher, and I was always late, but would often let me slide! I also had him for world history and summer enrichment classes. I think that due to his, and Mr. Halls guidance, I ended up as a history and government major in college.
I have often thought about him over the years, and had no idea he was in VA.
He was a kind and extremely patient man, and a great teacher
Peter Bennett was my favorite teacher of all time. His teaching approach was so interesting and innovative. As my ‘67 classmate Linda Jenkins commented his exams were creative and not your usual type calling for regurgitation of facts. I still remember one of my favorites. He had a section in an exam once he called “who might have said?”. One quote was “Aren’t you glad you used Dial soap; don’t you wish everyone did?” (a popular advertising slogan of the day). And the answer was Jean-Paul Marat, a French revolutionary figure who spent time in a bathtub for a skin condition and was assassinated while in the tub. The fact that I can remember that, 58 years later tells you the impact his teaching had on me. And oh yes, I went on to major in history in college, thanks to Mr. Bennett.
Mr. Bennett was such a wonderful and supportive person that he always seemed to be as much a friend as a teacher and advisor. He was so thoughtful and precisely articulate that I still remember verbatim complete sentences from conversations with him. He was my trail guide through history, the Staples Student Organization and my choice of college. Thank you again for everything, Mr. Bennett.