Peter Andrew Ames Sr.

Peter Andrew Ames Sr. passed away on Saturday, February 4, 2023, surrounded by his wife and children at Advent Health in Altamonte Springs, FL. Please see funeral details in the Services section of this site below the obituary.

The youngest of four children, Pete was born on April 14, 1950, in Brooklyn, NY to Marie and Thomas Ames and was raised on Long Island with his two older brothers and older sister. During his earliest years, the family lived in Carle Place, NY before moving to East Setauket, NY in 1957. Pete grew up spending his summers at his grandparents' beach house at Cedar Beach in Mount Sinai, NY. This home remained a treasured memory for Pete throughout his life and was a symbol of his favorite childhood memories with his brothers and sister. Pete and his siblings roamed the beach as free-range kids and spent their time swimming, hunting fiddler crabs in the sand, sailing, water skiing, fishing, climbing up and running down the dunes, and getting up to your typical childhood mischief. In the mid-1960s the family relocated to Reading, PA for a couple of years where Pete attended Exeter Township High School. However, the family soon returned to Long Island and moved into the beach house in Mount Sinai. Pete completed high school at Earl L. Vandermeulen High School in Port Jefferson, NY, graduating in 1968. Pete briefly attended Syracuse University before returning to Long Island and attending Suffolk Community College. It was there that he met his future wife, Christine in 1972. While attending Suffolk, Pete worked as the program director for the campus radio station and also did the news on a public station. When Pete graduated from Suffolk Community College in 1973, he and Chris moved to upstate NY so they could both attend the State University of New York at Oswego. In 1975, Pete graduated from Oswego with a double major in Political Science and Literature. That summer on June 21, 1975, Pete and Chris were married. The couple settled in Syracuse, NY where Pete attended Syracuse University College of Law and earned his Juris Doctor degree while working for the University as a College Admissions Officer. In 1979, Pete and Chris welcomed their first child, Peter Andrew “Andy” Ames, Jr. A few years later, in 1983, they welcomed their second child, Amanda Marie Ames. In 1987, Pete and Chris decided to move their family to Florida to be closer to both of their parents. They moved to Port Orange in the spring of that year and Pete began commuting to Orlando to work as a Public Defender in the 9th Judicial Circuit. In the early 90s, Pete left the 9th Circuit in Orlando to take a job with the 7th Circuit to be closer to home and spend more time with his family. He worked around the Volusia County and Flagler County areas at various offices within the Circuit until his retirement in 2014. During those years, Pete and his family would often spend their summer vacations driving to Long Island to visit his sister, Ellen, and her daughters, Jennifer and Susan, on the way to his in-laws’ summer camp on Sylvia Lake in Fowler, NY. Chris’s family had been spending summers on this lake for many years and their house, “Here ‘Tis”, became another treasured family home for Pete as he watched his children (and later his granddaughters) playing on the lake as he had done at the beach as a kid. In 2012, Pete was thrilled to welcome his first granddaughter, Alaina Maria Ames, and in 2014, was delighted with the arrival of his second granddaughter, Adeline Christine Ames. In April 2019, Pete was diagnosed with ALS and he and Chris decided to move to Altamonte Springs in the Orlando area to be closer to both of their children and their families.

Pete was a tall, broad-shouldered man whose size, personality, and heart were all equally large. He was a tender listener, a long-winded storyteller, and a great hugger. Pete was known affectionately as “Farticus” for his Olympic-level ability to “fart around” when there was somewhere to be and for being incredibly late to any and all social and family events. Pete loved animals, especially dogs. The bigger the better. At one time he owned an Irish Wolfhound named Mephistopheles that when standing on his hind legs, was as tall as Pete was. Pete loved to laugh and had an irreverent sense of humor. While his jokes were often off-color, they were never mean-spirited or unkind. Pete loved to build things and work in his garage workshop. He installed a custom built-in library in his living room (which took years to complete) and built a waterbed with his son. His daughter had her own stool next to him at his workbench where she would sit and chatter away while he worked and he never complained about her rambling. Pete was a self-professed Druid and loved the outdoors. He dreamed of traveling to every National Park and donated to Florida State Parks. Pete loved roller coasters but was absolutely, paralyzingly terrified of heights. Pete loved all things science fiction; TV shows, movies, books, you name it. Pete was a master of the pun, and he loved rhyming, especially if within earshot of his daughter, who was made crazy by it. Pete enjoyed history, particularly the Civil War. He dragged his wife and kids to battlefields up and down the country and pointed out every important hill and rock that someone once stood on. He could never pass any sign or plaque without reading it in its entirety. Pete loved being a father to all who needed one. He was always there for whoever needed him. After his sister’s husband passed away when their daughters were very young, Pete stepped in and was there for his nieces as much as he could. He was always there for his kids' friends as well and they all knew they had a place to stay and a shoulder whenever they needed it. When it came to his own children, he made hard choices and career sacrifices to make sure he was there to watch their games and recitals and to do school drop-offs and pick-ups every day. Pete loved his old, tiny, two-door, brown, hatchback Honda Civic “Baby” so much he kept it in the yard for years even after he replaced it with a giant Dodge Ram Hemi pickup truck named “Max” that he loved equally as much. Pete enjoyed music of all kinds from Led Zeppelin to Bach to Rogers and Hammerstein to Stevie Nicks to Puccini and everything in between. He made sure both of his kids learned how to play an instrument. He was president of the Spruce Creek High School Marching Band Parent Association while his children attended school there. He was always amazed by his son's ability to play many instruments with great skill and loved listening to him play. Pete dreamed of traveling to Italy and after years of saving (the fund being slightly set back after his daughter had a minor fender bender and he paid for the repairs to her car which he then took to calling “Little Italy”) he and Chris finally went there in 2014. He promptly broke his foot in Rome on day two of the trip and hobbled his way around the rest of Italy on crutches. Pete loved bright Hawaiian shirts and always wore them to theme parks so his family could spot him in the crowd, even though he was 6’2” and no one had trouble finding him. Pete was an avid collector of books, flashlights, rachet straps, and coffee cans full of screws.

Pete is survived by his wife Christine Ames; his son and daughter-in-law, Andy and Autumn Ames; his daughter and son-in-law, Amanda and Tom Gause; his granddaughters, Alaina Ames and Adeline Ames; his siblings, Greg (Nina) Ames, David (Deidre) Ames and Ellen (Ed) Legg; and his beloved yellow lab Belle.