Remembering Peter Hubbard, Navy veteran, teacher, world traveler

William Peter Hubbard, originally from Oxford, Maryland, was born on May 2, 1944, and died peacefully at his home in Berkeley on Dec. 3, 2024. He had been in hospice care and in the care of his loving wife, Eriko Kitazawa, for some time.

Peter graduated from Oxford Elementary School, Easton High School and the University of Maryland Baltimore as a philosophy major. Growing up on the shore of Chesapeake Bay fostered in him a life-long love of sailing and boating. He was a U.S. Navy veteran who served aboard ships in the Pacific and on shore duty in Africa. Upon discharge, Peter worked at the Veterans Administration in Baltimore before returning to Oxford. While living there, he was employed at Oxford Boatyard, Dickerson Boatbuilders and Todd Boatworks.

In the mid-80s, Peter moved to Berkeley. He initially worked at Svendsen’s Boatyard in Alameda, but by 1990, he had obtained a certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language and began teaching adult immigrants and refugees in the Berkeley Unified School District. 

He met Eriko in 1995; they began dating two years later and married in 2000. Together, they explored the West Coast, camping from the eastern Sierra north to Oregon and south to Big Sur. Peter retired from BUSD in 2014.

In addition to boats, Peter loved music, reading and discussing ideas with friends. For a time, he read poetry with a teaching colleague on Saturdays. He loved animals and often had dogs and/or cats. Peter also traveled to many countries, including Denmark, Morocco, Turkey, Egypt, Mexico and Japan. Keen to take on improvement projects, he was always happy to lend a hand, a tool or a book to a friend. He was proud to be a son of Oxford and never took for granted how special it was to have grown up there.

Peter was preceded in death by his parents, Orem and Charlotte Croswell Hubbard, his sister, Patricia Martin, and one brother, Paul Hubbard. In addition to his wife Eriko, he is survived by another brother, James Hubbard, in Florida; a daughter, Lani Nantz, of Honolulu; granddaughters Sarah Francis and Emily Kiaha; great-grandchildren Jack, Henry, and Charlotte; and nieces Jean Holtz and Deborah Daniels. No services are planned at this time.