Peter Lapa-Lilly
1986 – 2012
The Incomplete Passion
Artifact: Essay
Peter Lapa-Lilly was known among friends and family for his sharp mind, sensitive soul, and bright future. He graduated from college with honors and a degree in environmental science, which led to a promising career in the government, ensuring adequate groundwater quality. He loved hiking with family and taking care of the many pets that filled his home. On April 13, 2012, Peter Lapa-Lilly took his own life with a gun he had bought for “protection.”
Peter Lapa-Lilly left behind an essay that describes his love of the natural world, a love that would lead him to an unfinished career in environmental science and the dream of preserving our planet’s precious resources.
“As a child, I would often visit a small stream not far from my home, never with a goal in mind but always with a hope for a rewarding experience. I would wander through the thin veil of woods lining the stream and hop across the water where the stones provided a bridge. Often I came to a deep pool, scoured out from the flow from a cement culvert. The culvert itself was obtrusive, its graffiti ugly, but the pool was full of crayfish and sometimes even small fish. I only ever observed these creatures, never really interacted with them but their presence seemed to make the whole stream better somehow.
It was not a pristine environment, but the setting was pleasant nonetheless. There was a promised sense of adventure and a freedom to roam however brief or close to home. I understood little of the biotic interactions of fluvial processes of this landscape, but I knew the stream was where the trees grew. Where the vegetation was thick enough to hide. The stream was where the sound of flowing water could quiet the din of everything else. I thought not of why I valued this landscape, perhaps it had not occurred to me there was any alternative.”
—Peter Lapa-Lilly
Submitted by: Dorothy Paugh,
Peter's Mother