This obituary is a part of a sequence about individuals who have died within the coronavirus pandemic. Examine others right here.Peter Secchia not
This obituary is a part of a sequence about individuals who have died within the coronavirus pandemic. Examine others right here.
Peter Secchia not often boasted about his success, however he usually marveled at it.
At 25, he went to work as a salesman for a lumber firm that grossed $1 million yearly. He finally labored his means as much as chief govt and remodeled it into a worldwide conglomerate, with annual gross sales of $1.6 billion by the point he retired in 2002.
Buoyed by his monetary success, he emerged as a serious donor to his alma mater, Michigan State College, and a civic chief and philanthropist in Grand Rapids, his adopted hometown, and adjoining Western Michigan.
As a distinguished Republican contributor and fund-raiser, Mr. Secchia (pronounced SUCK-ee-uh) additionally turned a confidant of two presidents.
Below Gerald R. Ford, he delivered homespun Midwestern recommendation as a self-described “chubby, chunky lumber salesman from Grand Rapids carrying denims and a flannel shirt on the White Home.” Below George H.W. Bush, he served as ambassador to Italy and San Marino from 1989 to 1993.
When he returned to the US, he turned chairman of his firm, Common Forest Merchandise. In 2002, he took the title of chairman of the board of trustees of what’s now referred to as UFP Industries.
He had been coping with a number of well being points and was receiving nursing care at house when he contracted Covid-19. He died on Oct. 21 at his house in Grand Rapids, a household spokeswoman mentioned. He was 83.
His spouse was subsequently hospitalized with the illness, however was mentioned to be recovering.
Mr. Secchia was solely in his 20s when he met Mr. Ford, who was campaigning for re-election to his Grand Rapids congressional seat. Mr. Secchia was elected chairman of the Kent County Republican Committee and have become a serious fund-raiser for state and native candidates and for the presidential campaigns of Bob Dole, George W. Bush and Jeb Bush, the previous governor of Florida.
In an interview with the Gerald R. Ford Basis in 2008, Mr. Secchia recalled Mr. Ford’s prescience throughout a candid dialog within the White Home shortly after he had pardoned former President Richard M. Nixon.
“I needed to do it, and it’ll value me the ’76 election, however I needed to do it,” Mr. Secchia quoted Mr. Ford as saying.
Peter Finley Secchia was born on April 15, 1937, in Englewood, N.J., the son of Cesare Secchia, a bookkeeper for a automotive dealership who was referred to as Charlie, and Valerie (Smith) Secchia. He was raised in close by Demarest.
After graduating from Tenafly Excessive Faculty, he enrolled at Michigan State College. However he dropped out when working half time didn’t cowl his bills and enlisted within the Marines. He served in Beirut, then returned to the college and graduated in 1963 with a level in economics. (He and his spouse would donate hundreds of thousands of {dollars} to ascertain the headquarters of the School of Human Medication in Grand Rapids.)
In 1962 he joined Common Forest Merchandise as a salesman. He purchased management of the corporate in 1971 and served as chief govt till 1989.
Mr. Secchia, who additionally invested in stores and eating places, was “referred to as a lot for his irascible methods as for his generosity, humor and disdain for political correctness,” the corporate mentioned in a press release after his loss of life.
Along with his spouse, Joan (Peterson) Secchia, whom he married in 1964, he’s survived by two daughters, Stephanie Oehler and Sandy Aslanian; two sons, Charlie and Mark; 11 grandchildren; and a sister, Gail Secchia.