Peter Pinney Tilghman of Wells River, Vt. died peacefully on June 23 at the Frances Atkinson Center for the Retired in Newbury, Vt. He died of complications from Alzheimer’s disease and Covid. Peter was 74.

He was born October 21, 1948 in Oak Bluffs to Henry and Olive Pinney Tilghman. His family moved often, from Connecticut to New Jersey. But the center of family life was Chappaquiddick, first at the Drake’s Nest cottage at Pimpneymouse Farm and then his family’s home at 145 Chappaquiddick Road.

Peter was named after his grandfather, William W. (Peter) Pinney, who started coming to Chappaquiddick in 1896, staying with his family at “The Shanty Camp” owned by Norbert Child. Norbert bought the camp to go hunting with his friends, but it was soon commandeered by the entire Child family as a summer refuge.

From that humble camp there was veritable explosion of relatives who started coming to Chappaquiddick: Childs, Pinneys, Birds, Gostenhofers, Turnbulls, Tilghmans, Jones, Knights and Phinneys. As a child, Peter remembered family picnics at Wasque or East Beach in the mid-1950s. With all the generations, the cousins and their assorted friends, the crowd could have numbered about 50 in all.

Peter graduated from the Kent School in 1966 and the University of Virginia in 1970. He attended graduate school at the University of Texas in Austin, earning his doctorate in language and linguistics in 1975.

His first job was teaching at a college in Perth, Australia, then at an Aboriginal school district in the Kimberleys, Australia. He returned to the U.S. in 1981. He attended the Upper Valley Teacher Training Program in Lebanon, N.H.

He moved to Bryn Mawr, Pa. in 1984 and taught there for a year. The next year he moved to Beverly, where he taught at the Shore Country Day School. He started integrating information technology into his curriculum and received an award for a project where his class used computers to help with family finances. During that time, he also worked at an investment firm in Boston.

In 1992, Peter then moved to Cobham, England, where he taught at the American Community School. Again, he incorporated computers into the classroom and then worked in the internet technology department, where he helped manage the network integrating the three campuses as well as the school’s educational and business departments. He worked there for 20 years and participated in many field trips across the United Kingdom and Europe.

In 2012, he moved to Shanghai to teach at the Y.K. Pao School. He continued to combine education and technology with his students. He learned about the culture of China with trips to Beijing, the Great Wall and, his favorite, Suzhou ­— the Venice of China.

He retired from teaching in 2014 and moved to Wells River, Vt. The world traveler adjusted to life in a small village. He especially loved the café downstairs from his apartment. He was a fixture with the early breakfast crowd, mixing with local tradesmen and other retired folks. He continued his travels, visiting family in Vermont and Florida, then friends in Europe. His special place was Iceland, where he made several trips to see the northern lights.

Covid was especially hard on Peter, as the isolation limited his social life. He was a longtime diabetic and was also diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. He realized that he needed to accept his health issues and he moved from independence to Atkinson, an assisted-living facility, in 2022. He loved the sense of family there and the care he received. He enjoyed sharing his life experience with the staff and residents. In return, they loved his quiet sense of humor and his keen observations.

Peter leaves four siblings: Ruth Tilghman in Brattleboro, Vt. and Chappaquiddick; Thomas Tilghman of Lakeland, Fla. and Chappaquiddick; Frank Tilghman of Newbury, Vt.; and Lois Burriss of Norwich, Vt. and Chappaquiddick. He also had an assortment of nephews, nieces, grand-nephews and grand-nieces, and a large number of Chappaquiddick cousins.

According to his wishes, a funeral will not be held.