Peter G. Delany Sr.
Peter Graham Delany Sr., a summer resident of East Hampton who was the chief operating officer and head of production of Delany Products, a commercial plumbing manufacturer, died of a heart attack at his office in Charlottesville, Va., on July 21. He was 70 years old.
Mr. Delany, whose primary residence was Charlottesville, was born in New York City on Sept. 4, 1945, to A. Graham Delany Sr. and the former Melene Hart. He was educated at Tabor Academy in Marion, Mass., and the University of Pennsylvania. While in college during the Vietnam War, he was drafted, and entered Army Officers Candidate School in Panama. Two years later he was discharged as a lieutenant and returned to the university, graduating from the Wharton School of Business. When the family business moved from Brooklyn to Charlottesville in 1969, Mr. Delany moved with it.
Mr. Delany spent summers at the family home on Cottage Avenue from an early age, and learned to sail on Gardiner’s Bay at the Devon Yacht Club in Amagansett. A skilled competitive sailor, he won the Long Island Perpetual Bowl on his Comet Sazerac when he was just 18. He proposed to his wife of 34 years, the former Grenelle Savory, at the end of the dock at Devon. The family enjoyed entertaining friends, playing wiffleball, and hosting wine tastings at their house.
In Charlottesville, Mr. Delany was a fourth-generation executive at Delany Products, where he started on the assembly line in 1974 and became C.O.O. and head of production in the late 1990s.
He is survived by his wife and two children, Peter Graham Delany Jr. and Charlotte Savory Cowles Delany, both of Charlottesville. He also leaves a sister, Brooke Louise Delany of Denver, and two brothers, A. Graham Delany Jr. and David Scott Delany of Charlottesville.
A memorial service was held on July 30 at St. Paul’s Church in Ivy, Va. Mr. Delany was cremated, and his ashes were buried at St. Paul’s Cemetery there; some were saved to be spread off Devon. Donations in Mr. Delany’s memory have been suggested to the Alzheimer’s Association, which can be found online at alz.org.