March 19, 1933 - December 3, 2024
Peter Kean Roosevelt was born in New York City on March 19, 1933, to Elise Annette Weinacht and John Kean Roosevelt. He died on December 3, 2024, in Denver, Colorado. Pete’s youth was spent in Oyster Bay, Long Island, in and around the salt water he loved. His days were filled with swimming, sailing, picking up oysters off the beach, and eating them on the spot with his father and sister, Liz. When Pete was seventeen, he crewed on his Uncle George’s yacht, Mistress, in the Newport to Bermuda race.
The next two summers he spent working on his brother Al’s ranch in Valentine, Texas, and his life was changed. He had discovered the West. After graduating from The Hill School, he attended the University of Colorado, where he discovered geology, a field that interested him for the rest of his life. His college summers were spent mining for gold and then tungsten in Ward, Colorado, with a miner who was a native of Ward. Winter mountaineering, climbing, skiing, and building a log cabin in Ward kept him busy during the winter months.
While at CU, he met and fell in love with Marjorie Snyder. What won her over was his winning smile and the twinkle in his eye. Pete and Midge were married on October 6, 1956, and settled in Denver, where they raised a family and lived together for sixty-eight years.
To support his family, Pete took on many types of work, approaching each one with joy and viewing it as a game. While he was a gifted investor in both real estate and the stock market, most of his time was spent researching and drilling for oil. At first, he wildcatted with partners, and then he broke out on his own. Pete enjoyed the hunt more than anything. He would diligently explore the geology of a prospect and could hardly wait to confirm if his findings were correct. He founded two family businesses: The Half Shell Oil Company and then later, The Roosevelt Operating Company. Pete loved work and continued going to his office until the week before he died.
When Pete finally had time for a hobby, he took up plein air painting. He worked hard and became an accomplished artist, always painting on the spot, landscapes and skiers in Colorado and boats and fishermen in Nantucket. He was a man of many interests, but it was his lifelong love of poetry that sustained him until the end.
Pete was a kind, loving, generous, forgiving, and eternally optimistic man who approached everything with a dry humor, enthusiasm, and a love of life. He is survived by his wife, Marjorie; his son, James Alfred Roosevelt, and his children, Marian L. Roosevelt and Alfred H. Roosevelt (Ellen Roosevelt) and their daughters, Frances and Sevy; his daughter, Christine Roosevelt (Gregory Norman) and their children, John K. R. Norman, Yale T. Norman, and Alexandra R. Norman; his son, Charles Bunting Roosevelt, and his daughters, Laura K. Roosevelt and Helen E. Roosevelt; and his daughter, Margaret Roosevelt (William Jacob) and their children, Phillip R. Williams and Reeve L. Jacob.