Peter C. Bodett

Peter Bodett was born on the west side of Chicago in the spring of 1925 to Peter Carlyle Bodett Sr., a tile setter, and Bridget Frances (Mulcahy) Bodett, a “housewife”. Then County Clerk Richard J. Daly signed the birth certificate. Both Peter Jr and Richard Daly would go on to greater things.
Peter’s early childhood was filled with the urban antics and adventures of a Prohibition/Depression Era kid in Chicago. He once told the story of watching a high speed gun battle between gangsters and police making its way along Cicero Avenue. A hardscrabble childhood became harder when, at the age of 8, Peter’s father fell ill and died of congenital heart failure. With his prematurely widowed mom and an older sister, Mary Frances, Peter went to work to help support the family. School became difficult as a result of working several jobs from newsboy to various factories involved in print, plastics, and radio chassis. He would often work into the wee hours of the morning with little left over for the day’s lessons. All of his earnings were handed over to his mother for the family expenses.
WWII broke out when Peter was a sophomore at Chicago’s Austin High School. Like most of this Great Generation, Peter was eager to enlist in the armed forces. In his case, the US Navy, like his dad. His mother would not sign the papers for his enlistment so he enrolled in the ROTC in order to graduate and go directly into the Navy, which he did at the height of the war in 1943 at the age of 18. He would not leave his country’s service until 1966 when he resigned his commission in the US Naval Reserve as a Lt Commander.
Peter served out the war years in pilot training stateside and then retrained to become a navigator which allowed him to travel the Pacific war theater in 1945 and 1946 helping with the mop up and the logistical challenges of the occupation of Japan and its former territories. He spoke of these early years in the Navy with great fondness and clarity and they were some of the last memories to fade as the clouds of age came over him.
The GI Bill provided Peter with the opportunity of college, which he took full advantage of. Between Navy assignments as part of an anti-submarine air squadron in Virginia Beach, VA and Quonset PT, RI -- where he helped patrol the East Coast on the look out for Soviet submarines -- Peter completed a mechanical engineering degree at the University of Illinois. He left there in 1956 with a diploma, his beautiful bride, Florence Elizabeth (DePauw) Bodett, and already two of the six children they would have together.
Between the US Navy and career opportunities, Peter and Florence’s six children were born in five different states, but they settled finally in Sturgis, MI where they lived for 24 years. He worked for Duo Therm Corporation in LaGrange, IN during that time in capacities ranging from design engineering to Manager of Manufacturing. His name appears in several patents held by Duo Therm on the air conditioning and heating components he spent his career building.
After his retirement from Duo Therm in 1986, Peter and Florence moved to South Bend, IN and went into business for themselves as Technical Consulting Services, a private engineering consulting firm, which he operated until a collision with prostate cancer knocked him out of that game. Tough as an Irish biscuit, Peter survived prostate and colon cancer and a number of other indignities. Then, in the biggest and saddest surprise of his life,; he also survived Florence, the love of his life, for five often lonely years. They are together again and the family they gave life to is eternally grateful to them both.
Peter died suddenly and mercifully of heart failure on the morning of December 15, 2010 in Elkhart, IN. He is preceded in death by his father, Peter Carlyle Bodett, Sr, his mother, Bridget Frances (Mulcahy) Bodett, and his sister Mary Frances (Bodett) Dubnicek and his wife, Florence Elizabeth (DePauw) Bodett. He is survived by his daughters, Peggy Ann (Gary) Near of Bristol, IN with their 3 children and 3 grandchildren; Linda Marie (Barry) Schaub of Middleburg, PA and their three children. His sons, William Peter Bodett of Waterbury, CT and his 2 children and 2 grandchildren, Thomas Edward (Rita Ramirez) Bodett of Putney, VT and their 3 children, Richard Louis Bodett (Delores) of Elverta, CA and their 5 children and 5 grandchildren, Robert Charles (Karen) Bodett of Williamsburg, VA and their child.
Services are being postponed until early May, near his birthday, when Peter’s remains can be interred alongside his wife’s with full military honors and surrounded by his family and the joy of the season.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in Peter’s name to the Elkhart County Veterans Office Flag holder fund and the National Association for disabled Veterans.
Stemm-Lawson-Peterson Funeral Home, Elkhart is assisting the family with arrangements. Visit www.stemmlawsonpeterson.com to sign an online guestbook.