PETER J. FERNALD ’50

PETER J. FERNALD, who retired as vice president of planning and development for the Times-Mirror Company, died Sept. 25, 2015. He was 86. A member of Eclectic, he received his degree with high honors and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He was awarded the Thorndike Regional Scholarship, which forged his enduring desire to support financial aid at Wesleyan. After serving in the U.S. Air Force, he received both a master’s degree and an MBA from Harvard University. He worked at Arthur D. Little until he was hired by the Chandler family, the owners of the Los Angeles Times, to help them develop their affiliated businesses. He spent many years as the Times-Mirror Corporation’s director of planning, overseeing strategic development and acquisitions. In 2009 he was interviewed and featured at length in the PBS documentary, Inventing LA: The Chandlers and Their Times, which highlighted the ways in which the growth of the Times-Mirror Company was tied to the development of modern Los Angeles. He never married and remained close to the Chandler family in his early retirement years.