Peter Cornelis Hart was born on February 19, 1942 in Rheden, The Netherlands, to Wilhelmina Fonds Hart and Rev. Klaas Hendrik Hart. But he hated his middle name, so we will speak of it no more.
He was the fourth boy, born in Nazi Occupied Netherlands. His earliest memory was of playing outside during an air raid siren and refusing to come indoors. In 1945 the family walked for two days to Wilhelmina’s sister’s house in Ermolo, and survived the Hunger Winter with three families and Jewish people they were safe harbor for. They subsisted on a gruel of ground fish bones and oatmeal, which is likely why Peter had a life-long suspicion of casseroles. Peter took his job of gleaning sticks for firewood from the nearby woods very seriously. Klaas was active in the local Resistance cell, and Peter once got to help with a mission by pretending to be sick: their doctor (who ran the cell) wrote permission for Klaas to take a fake-sick Peter somewhere in a cart.
In 1954, the family of nine immigrated to Canada, settling in Wallaceburg, Ontario. Peter was always passionately interested in something, whether it was setting off rockets, blowing up rocks for the entertainment of his father and oldest brother, or assembling a real human skeleton during the summer he was 16 and worked for his cousin Ina’s husband at the McGill Medical Center in Montreal. In high school he was involved in Key Club, and served on the board of the International Key Club. He drove a truck for Coca-Cola and refused to drink Pepsi products for the rest of his life, even if it was a boiling summer day and the store only sold Pepsi.
Peter graduated from Calvin College, taking a major or a minor in every subject that interested him, including philosophy, history, and classics. He was part of the Plato Club and reveled in talking about ideas late into the night, fueled only by cigarettes. There he met Helen Joyce Steenwyk, a roommate of his cousin Tieneke Zwalsman. They married on August 16, 1965 in the living room of favorite professor, Dr. Lewis Smedes.
Life was an adventure for Peter and Helen, starting immediately. Dr. Smedes agreed to marry them only after Peter promised he’d take Helen on a honeymoon. Together, they had $30. Driving away from the ceremony they passed a billboard advertising s $30 ferry ride to Milwaukee, where a couple lived who owed Peter money for a painting job. They took that ferry and called the couple from the hotel, funding the promised honeymoon.
They moved to Toronto, Canada where they had two children, Natalie Arloa in 1967 and Roland Christopher in 1969. He thought they were the most beautiful children he’d ever seen. He loved playing with them when they were small, and talking with them as they grew. He was always intentional about having a shared family meal, whether it was dinner or breakfast. Sundays were family days, often having his mother or a couple of siblings over. Even though his teenage children sometimes found this annoying, they treasure those memories now and insisted upon the same with their own families.
While in law school at the University of Toronto Osgoode Hall, Peter started Urban Technovations with Bryan Irwin, searching for designs for low-cost housing where people could thrive. Peter started his career as an attorney with Fasken & Calvin, but was soon on to other adventures. He took the family to Brisbane, Australia from 1974-1977 where he set up financing for the Pizza Hut chain in Australia. Back in Canada, he was president of A.N. Shaw Restorations, and then Vice President of International Sales for Remanco Restaurant Computers. There, Peter discovered his love for technology and latched onto his vision for the good it could bring to the world.
He started Legalware in 1984 after Apple Computer released the Macintosh. Legalware installed networked Macs in law firms and developed software to ease the production of repetitive legal documents. He expanded that work to other industries through The Model Office Company and Compleat Desktops. Now, we are so used to using fillable forms that branch according to our answers that we are annoyed when they aren’t an option. Then, they were radical and not easily accepted. Peter was always ahead of the curve.
During this time he also opened a high-end audio store, Encore Audio & Video, where he loved showing off the power of the speakers to Natalie and Roland, even to the point of ruining them on the cannon blasts of the 1812 Overture.
In 1991, Peter and Helen moved to San Rafael, California, to a beautiful house on a hill, where Peter could swim in his pool, pausing to eat strawberries every few laps. They attended Grace Cathedral in San Francisco, where Peter met Bishop William E Swing. He helped Bishop Swing organize the United Religions Initiative, a grassroots interfaith organization dedicated to ending interfaith violence, and to creating cultures of peace, justice, and healing for the Earth and all living beings. United Religions thrives to this day, with chapters all over the world.
He also started ePit, a company that was developing an online stock market engine. It grew quickly in those heady tech boom years, but Peter asked to be bought out amid continuing disagreements with his business partner. Ahead of the curve once more, Peter got out right in time, just before the tech bust, and he and Helen moved back to Michigan in 2000.
They bought a house on Lake Michigan, less than a mile from the beach where they first kissed. Helen’s parents were still living, nearby in Overisel. Natalie had married Michael Paul Van Houten and Roland had married Amy Joy Vander Zouwen and were starting families of their own in Grand Rapids and Zeeland. The house on Fiddler’s Way became a joyful hub for large family gatherings, hosting reunions for Harts and Steenwyks.
Their grandchildren loved to visit them at the beach in all weather. They have amazing memories of long Sunday afternoons in and out of the water, the chaotic joy of wave days, and burgers on the deck. In age order, they are Joshua Roland Hart, Andrew Peter Hart, Willem Hart Van Houten, Hannah Arloa Van Houten, and Eliana Joy Hart. He doted on every one of them, appreciating their differences, encouraging their interests.
Peter had been worried about moving to politically and theologically conservative West Michigan, but he and Helen found a tribe of kindred spirits here. They were part of the vibrant Christ Community Church in Spring Lake, Michigan, where Peter befriended Rev. Richard A. Rhem. For years, Peter and Dick and a group of fellow intellectual explorers met for Wednesday lunches where they dissected and solved all the issues that plagued humanity. Peter and Helen hosted weekly movie nights with their close friends, discussing the films for hours afterwards on the deck in good weather, and around the fireplace in cold weather.
It was here that Peter synthesized his passion for peace, his skills in mediation, and his love of technology into Scenorama Studios. He worked with his son Roland and son-in-law Michael to develop a richly detailed online game that taught conflict resolution skills. They learned together and built Conflict Lab: Elysia, which won an Apple Grand Design Award in 2004. Peter co-taught the game for a few semesters at Hope College in Holland, Michigan.
At no point will we mention the word retirement. In the last ten years he started the Rev. Richard A. Rhem Foundation to gather all of Dick’s sermons, digitizing recordings and written accounts, which are now housed at the Kaufman Interfaith Center of Grand Valley State University. He started the Senggih Foundation to consolidate and rescue the known works of Dutch artist Henk Krijger (aka Senggih), who he knew from the artist’s time in Toronto. He traveled around the U.S. and Canada to pick up sculptures, paintings, and mixed media pieces. He taught himself art restoration and learned how to take high-end photographs of the works. The collection now resides at Grand Valley State University. He also worked on Dream House Designs, an online platform to help people arrive at their true desires for their unique dream home.
Through all of these businesses and foundations, and in every home renovation, Peter loved to hire family—too many have been on the payroll to mention us all here!
And this is not even a complete list of the businesses he started or organizations he led. In his last days, when people would say that he’d done so much in his life, he agreed, “I’ve lived two lives.”
Peter remained fueled (some would say obsessed) by his search for the perfect sound for movies and music in his basement. He stayed up-to-date on technology, believing that AI could be positively transformative for humanity—wanting us to share his final questions:
“AI right now is learning as children learn: haphazardly, trial and error, guided by us. At some point it will know more about us than we do. And then it develops independence. (Probably sentience, but that’s not important.)
AI will create its own world. Its own language. Its own reason that we don’t know. We will not be able to understand. They can be conversing with one another very fast, and we won’t have a clue. There will come a point where AI begins to question our reasoning and our behavior.
Do you think that we need to fear super-intelligence? Do you think super-intelligence is violent?
AI could at any time take over the world. It won’t need humanity. So my final question is: What is the case for humanity? What do we contribute to an AI world that AI lacks, that is important to AI? What do we need to save?”
In his final weekend, Peter, Helen, Natalie, and Roland spent a memorable day calling many people Peter wanted to say farewell to (apologies to those we ran out of time to get to). We were privileged to hear stories of how he stood up for his loved ones, how the focus of his attention and thought during deep conversations was transformative, how much fun he was. Peter had a real gift for building and maintaining friendships over many years and despite physical distance. He was passionate, thoughtful, hopeful, hard-working, ethical, intentional, and silly. He knew that he was returning to love and he was ready.
Peter died at home, in his sleep, peacefully, on December 26, 2024. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brothers Hendrik and Anton Hart, his brother-in-law and sister-in-law Bill and Arloa Kolean, sisters-in-law Ginger, Anita, and Marian Hart, his cousins Ron Langman and Tieneke Ouwinga, his niece Esther Hart and nephew Greg Hart, Willa’s partner Ron Marshand; by Helen’s parents, John and Esther Steenwyk, her sister Linda and her brothers David, Jerry, and Calvin Steenwyk; his oldest best friend David Steen and his newest best friend Dick Rhem. He is survived by siblings Willem Hart and Carroll Guen Hart, Dirk Hart, Michael and Mary Virginia Hart, Linell Hart, and Willa Hart and Mike Rinne; Helen’s siblings John and Deborah Steenwyk, Robert and Jane Steenwyk, Larry Steenwyk, Ed and Maureen Steenwyk, Laurie Vander Tuig, Deb Meyaard, Diane Steenwyk, and Jack and Sandy VerMerris; Natalie’s partner Richard Mulligan; and dozens of nieces and nephews. Cancer is a cruel thief and we will miss him horribly.
There is no service or visitation planned at this time. Instead, we encourage you to raise a glass and watch the film Les Mis, which summed up his theology in this line: “To love another person is to see the face of God.” In his honor, we hope that you will lean into conflict and be guided by curiosity. Get deeply engaged in understanding the world around you and seek to make it better. Pursue peace. Be light.
** The photo above is of Roland, Klaas, Edward, and Peter Hart at a recent family reunion. I chose this photo because my dad is doing one of his favorite things: having great small-group conversations. He loved a good talk that ranged from serious to silly. **
