Peter O. Hersloff

Peter O. Hersloff died in his sleep on February 23, 2010. He was 81 years old. Mr. Hersloff, born in East Orange, New Jersey, moved to the Eastern Shore at a very young age. From that day forward, he embraced all that Talbot County and the Eastern Shore had to offer. He was an avid sportsman, bird hunter, and yachtsman. He owned and raced many sailboats in his lifetime, but his favorite was the log canoe, “Oliver’s Gift”, which he owned in the 1960s and early 1970s. He belonged to both the Chesapeake Bay Yacht Club and the Tred Avon Yacht Club, and was a past commodore of the latter. He was known to be fun loving and energetic with a magnetic personality. He was small in stature but tall in charm, with a dash of mischief on the side. He adored opera and was known to recreate his version of various tenor parts from Rigoletto and La Boheme, especially late at night. In his later years, he enjoyed simpler pleasures, such as bird watching, his dogs and reading. His favorite authors were Rudyard Kipling, Bernard Cornwell and C.S. Forester. He lived on and adored the Wye River. He attended the Country School and was in the graduating class of 1942. He was in the first ever Nativity play put on by the young school and, because he was shorter than the other lead, Nancy Burroughs Firth Requardt, he was cast as Mary, and she was cast as Joseph. (He loved that story.) He went on to the Severn School, Tabor Academy and the University of Maryland, where he was on both the wrestling and lacrosse teams. Mr. Hersloff was a stockbroker in Easton, beginning his career with Stein Bros. and Boyce, in partnership with the late Peter S. Thompson. Later they joined the firm of Alex Brown and Sons and moved their offices to the Bullitt House, where it was rumored that business and good times received equal attention. After retiring, he and the late Rogers C. B. Morton began a yacht building business on the Wye River, which produced 13 power yachts, one of which Mr. Hersloff built for himself named the “Lucky Pierre”. For 30 years he took the “Lucky Pierre” down the inland waterway every winter to Florida. The trip was one of his greatest joys. Mr. Hersloff traces his ancestry on the Eastern Shore back ten generations to William Hemsley who came to the Eastern Shore in 1658 from Yorkshire, England. His family tree is peppered with Lloyds, Tilghmans, Grymes, and Formans. Among his Hemsley ancestors was William Hemsley, Jr. (1737-1812), a wealthy planter and landowner who lived at “Cloverfields”, in Queen Anne’s County and was a member of the Continental Congress from 1782-1784. Mr. Hersloff’s father, Sigurd Hersloff and his uncle, Arthur Johnson Grymes, were founding members of the Tred Avon Yacht Club, and Mr. Grymes also built the Tidewater Hotel here in Easton. Mr. Hersloff is survived by three daughters, two sons-in-law and eight grandchildren: Laura Hersloff Eddy and David Corbett Eddy, their children: Trevor Penrose Eddy, Eliza Watts Forman Eddy and Isabelle Drexel Eddy; Francesca Penrose Murray, her children: Alexander Emmet Murray and Francesca Drexel Murray; Lydia Biddle White Calf and Royce White Calf: their children, Wakinyan Oliver White Calf, Akicita Jackson Henry White Calf, and her daughter from a former marriage, Sophia Biddle Ferreira. Two stepchildren, Paul Edward Wilson, III, and Margaret Wilson Archer, her husband Tom Archer, and numerous step grandchildren, and step great-grandchildren also survive him. Mr. Hersloff was predeceased by his second wife, Margaret Scott Hersloff, and her younger son Andrew Wilson. Graveside services will be held on Saturday, March 6, 2010, at 11:00 am at the Oxford Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Talbot Humane Society, 7894 Ocean Gateway, Easton, MD 21601.

Peter O. Hersloff

June 5, 1928 - February 23, 2010