Peter Chase Nikander

Peter Chase Nikander was born in July 1941 on his mother’s birthday in Boston, Massachusetts. When Pete was an infant, his father Viljo assumed the presidency of Suomi College (later renamed Finlandia University), so Viljo and Pete’s mother Sylvia moved the family to Hancock, Michigan. In May of 1943, Pete’s brother John was born to the family, and in 1947 when Pete was 6 years old, the family moved to Staten Island, New York, where Pete attended grade school through high school. Pete’s love of sport blossomed during the many happy years he lived on the Wagner College campus, where his father was a professor. Some of Pete’s fondest childhood memories were of the family summers spent at Squam Lake in New Hampshire. In 1959 he attended Gettysburg College in Pennsylvania and joined the college ROTC, the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity, and was a manager for the Gettysburg basketball and football teams. He graduated in 1963 with a Bachelor’s degree in Physical Education and entered the military immediately after graduation. He completed his basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky and was stationed in Germany in late December of 1963 as a Second Lieutenant. In January, mere days after arriving in Germany, Pete met his future wife Margot during the German celebration of Fasching. He proposed on the 3rd date and they were married seven months later in July 1964. Nine months later in April of 1965, their first child Stephen was born in a Military Hospital in Wurzburg, Germany. Pete and the family remained in Germany for three more years, then in 1966 transferred to Fort Leonardwood, Missouri where he served the 4th and final year of his military career. Pete rose to the rank of Captain as a tank commander in the U.S. Army. After he left the military, he joined Sun Oil Company (ultimately becoming Oryx Energy) and in May of 1969 his second son Mark was born in Teaneck, New Jersey. He retired after 28 years, with stops in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Missouri, California and Oklahoma. Pete and Margot returned to California in 2003, where they remained for almost 2 decades, to be a part of their grandchildren’s lives and watch them grow. Pete was taken from us too early by cardiac arrest, a month after he and Margot relocated to Texas to be near their family. He is survived by Margot, his wife of 58 years, his two sons Stephen (Anna spouse) and Mark (Earn spouse), his grandchildren Erika and Daniel, and his brother John. His remains will be returned to Lakeside Cemetery in Hancock, Michigan at the Nikander family plot. Donations in lieu of flowers may be made in his memory to Finlandia University.