Francis M.S. Peel
February 16, 1927 – June 18, 2018
Long time AIC member and perennial membership contest winner/runner up, Francis (Frank) Peel, passed away of natural causes on June 18th 2018 at his home in Naples, Florida, surrounded by his loved ones. He was 91 and had lived a good life. An attorney with an international reputation and an international lifestyle, Frank was born in London in 1927 and during the Blitz was a boy bicycle messenger. He was the son of Gisele née Mirmovitch and Rabbi Maurice Perlzweig, a leader long associated with human rights at the United Nations. During the worst of WWII, the family moved to New York where he joined the US Army and gained dual citizenship.
A graduate of Cornell and the Columbia Law School and passionate about political life, he worked on Adlai Stephenson’s campaign. Frank returned to Europe in 1957 and settled in Geneva Switzerland to become Chief of Planning for the International Labor Organization. His career later included roles as legal advisor for a variety of United Nations divisions including UNESCO and the World Health Organization. Among his many accomplishments, he helped found the European campuses for Webster College of St. Louis in Geneva, Vienna, London and Leiden. An adept speaker, he was a prominent political commentator in Geneva and on trans-Atlantic cruises. Migrating back to the US, he campaigned with Jimmy Carter in 1976 and was a member of the President’s transition team with the US Department of Commerce.
An inveterate networker, Frank was a fixture at the AIC for some 40 years, having recruited many of our current members. Indeed, he recruited me to join the Club some 6 months before I moved to Geneva in 1995!!
Upon retirement to Florida in 2008, Frank shared his lifetime view of world events and was active as a lecturer on cruise ships and in Naples. He made a whirlwind return to Geneva in his 90th year, and gave a cocktail presentation to the Club on 14 June 2016 at the Hotel Metropole, titled “The Next President of the United States”. The account of the nostalgic evening is attached at the end of this note. Although he ultimately predicted that Hilary Clinton at that time looked to be the presumptive favorite to win, he hedged his bets about the chances of Donald Trump, and gifted his AIC hosts with red Make America Great Again hats.
He had been married to Jane Irene Zielonko, a Slavic scholar and translator of Nobel-winning author Milosz. Predeceased by his brother Robert Perlzweig, he is survived by his daughter, Suzi Peel of Trappe Maryland, and his two granddaughters Julia Warczyk and Ania Warczyk Payne.
A service in celebration of the life of Frank Peel will be held at a later date. In his memory, donations may be made to the World Wildlife Fund www.WWF.org
Please direct all condolences or correspondence to suzipeel@icloud.com
6 September 2018
EP Flaherty, AIC Club President (2015-16)
Dr. Francis "Frank" PEEL
"The Next President of the United States"
There was a lovely whiff of nostalgia at a very special event hosted by the AIC at the Hotel Metropole on the evening of 14 June 2016. Dr Francis “Frank” Peel, a 40+ year member of the AIC, and a perennial winner of the annual member recruitment contest, returned to Geneva and the Club to prognosticate on the “Next President of the United States”. Not only was the evening special on account of Frank’s presence, but also due to the fact that it was one of the first “member-driven” events which will become more commonplace at the Club over the coming years with the bulk of the organizing obligations falling on the sponsoring member.
Frank spent 51 years as a resident of Geneva, returning to the US in 2008, settling in Naples, Florida, where he frequently gives talks on American politics in both English and French. Approaching his 90th year on earth, Frank was determined to make it back to Geneva to renew old friendships, as well as his longtime affiliation with the AIC, and so he did with quite a splash, thanks in part to his old friends Guillaume Cheneviere, former Director-General of SRS, and former AIC president Ed Flaherty, with whom Frank collaborated on a professional basis for nearly twenty years.
Far from a traditional AIC event, Frank dispensed large measures of political history, Club nostalgia, and life lessons over his one and a half hour talk, fueled in part by old friends, new acquaintances, and a bit of red wine. Before answering his own penultimate question, Frank discussed whether the next US president would continue to reduce America’s international role, or instead continue to increase the Government’s domestic undertakings, opining that no matter who was elected, the Federal government’s involvement in domestic affairs would continue to grow. On the foreign affairs front, he felt the Democratic nominee was more likely to expand the US’ involvement overseas than the Republican nominee.
Attendees were also treated to several short clips of Frank’s ground-breaking English-language interview series on TSR in the late 90’s, one with pop artist and former Geneva resident Phil Collins, the other with Rev. William McComish, the former rector of the Cathedral St Pierre in the Geneva Old Town.
As the evening drew to a close, and members of the audience pressed Frank for his prediction in November, Frank reluctantly disclosed that he felt (in June 2016) that Hillary Clinton was more likely to prevail, although he included the caveat that he expected the election to be exceedingly close, and that it was foolish to discount or dismiss Donald Trump’s chances of victory. Recent events up to the time of the writing of this article (October 2016) seem to bear his caveat out. His predictions will presumably already have been put to the test when this article is published in the AIC Lifestyle Magazine in late 2016.
In the end, Frank expressed his fervent belief that no matter who was elected as the next US President, America would survive as it had in the past, a thought that seemed to be widely shared by his politically diverse audience. As a parting gift, Frank presented his hosts with “Make America Great Again” hats to great laughter, and vowed to continue to return to Geneva and the AIC as often as he was physically able. We hope to see him back at the Club again!