Herbert Lewis Hamilton, Jr., “Pete”, age 89, of Woburn, formerly a long-time resident of Winchester, passed away unexpectedly on March 14, 2016 of natural causes. He was the beloved husband of Abigail (McCormick) Hamilton for 54 years until her death in 2010.
Mr. Hamilton was born in Fairmont, WV, the son of the late Herbert Lewis and Sarah Elizabeth (Kuhn) Hamilton. He was raised and educated in Fairmont and graduated from Fairmont High School with the class of 1944. At Fairmont High, Pete played basketball and was the captain of the football team, as was his father at the same high school.
After high school, Pete enlisted in the Army Air Corps and attended basic training in Biloxi, Mississippi. He was stationed in the Philippines for the duration of the war as a radio communications operator, and was discharged in late 1945 with the rank of Corporal.
Mr. Hamilton attended the University of Cincinnati from 1946 to 1952 and graduated with a B.S. in Architecture. While there, he was a member of the Theta Chi Fraternity and participated in the cooperative education program, so he worked while also attending classes. His education was financed by the G.I. Bill, for which he was very proud and grateful, and was the first in his family to graduate from college.
In 1956, he married Abigail Cargill McCormick in Princeton, West Virginia. Abby was also an architect. They moved to the Boston area after a honeymoon on Nantucket. A resident of Winchester for over 51 years, Pete lived his remaining years at Country Club Heights in Woburn, MA, an assisted-living facility, though he mostly lived independently. He was the architect of this building, built as 55-plus senior housing in 1979.
A very talented architectural designer, he designed countless buildings in the Boston area, mainly corporate office buildings and schools, and was also highly skilled at drawing architectural renderings in pen and ink. Mr. Hamilton was a principal partner in Architects Design Group of Cambridge, from 1966 to 1975, and worked at various other firms in the Boston area from 1956 to 1991, when he retired at age 65.
Locally, Mr. Hamilton designed the interior renovation for transforming the Catholic Marycliff Academy building in Winchester to the public Ambrose Elementary School in the early 1970s. (That building was later razed and replaced with the current building in 2003.)
Pete was a member of the Winchester Unitarian Church, and was active in church affairs, especially in the 1960s and early 1970s. He taught Sunday school for at least five years and was chairman of the Standing Committee for several years.
In Winchester, he served for many years as the state appointee to the Winchester Housing Authority board. In the 1980s, he designed and built stage sets for plays performed by the Unitarian Players (now the Winchester Players). He occasionally was given a minor acting role. More recently, along with his wife Abby, he delivered meals to seniors for the Meal on Wheels program in Winchester.
An avid athlete, Mr. Hamilton spent many years in the 1970s as a "gym rat", playing basketball at the Winchester High School gym on Saturdays and Sundays. He also played a lot of tennis at the Packer-Ellis Courts in Winchester. From ages 47 to 74, he was a serious long-distance runner, often logging 50 to 60 training miles per week. He ran in several marathons, with his best time of 3:14 at age 54. Every Sunday morning, Pete could be found on long runs with a group of his "running buddies", and especially with his dear friend Harold Zeckel of Lexington.
Pete was a voracious reader, especially non-fiction works. He loved reading topics on science. He also had an immense vocabulary. During his idle time while serving in World War II, he would read the dictionary.
Mr. Hamilton’s will be remembered as a very kind, thoughtful man, loved by all who knew him, and as a man who “beat to his own drum”. He had a great sense of humor and was known for several classic impromptu humorous lines, which gave him a reputation as witty and “cool”. Most importantly, he was a very loyal and devoted husband to his late wife. He was unwavering in his care for her and was by her bedside every day for many hours during the last year of her life.
In addition to his son Paul Samuel “Hank” Hamilton and his wife Kim, of Acton, he leaves another son, Phillip Lewis Hamilton of Tewksbury. He is further survived by his grandsons, Travis Scott and Curtis Robert Hamilton. A Memorial Service and Celebration of Pete’s life will be held at the Winchester Unitarian Society, 478 Main St., on Saturday, April 2 at 11AM. Relatives and friends are kindly invited to attend. Interment is private.