Updated at 5:45 p.m. Jan. 8
Col. D. Peter Gleichenhaus, or “Col. Pete,” as friends liked to call him, lived a life devoted to service, both in his nearly 30-year career in the U.S. Army and in his role as a Jewish community leader.
Gleichenhaus died on Dec. 25 in San Francisco. He was 85. The cause of death was complications after a fall he took while playing tennis, according to his adult children.
“The first night of Hanukkah is the night he passed, surrounded by his family,” son Army Col. Joseph Gleichenhaus told J.
A memorial service was held at Congregation Am Tikvah in San Francisco on Jan. 3, followed by graveside burial with U.S. military honors at Salem Memorial Park in Colma.
“Peter was a generous, compassionate leader — husband, father, brother, coach, congregant, and friend,” Rebecca Goodman, director of Jewish community engagement for the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area, wrote in a Dec. 30 email. Gleichenhaus served on the JCRC board from 2019 until the time of his death. In 2018, he received JCRC’s Lifetime Distinguished Leadership Award after having led the organization’s “Hiring Our Heroes” project to match returning Bay Area veterans with jobs.
On a memorial site, dozens of people shared fond memories of Gleichenhaus, including one lauding him as “a decisive leader and a mensch.”
“Pete was an exceptional leader and a remarkable human being,” Rabbi Doug Kahn, executive director emeritus of JCRC, wrote on the site. “When we worked together on a program to engage the Jewish community on behalf of veterans, Pete said it’s about “jobs, jobs, jobs” and then he approached the S.F. Giants and the next thing I know we have a major jobs fair for veterans.”
Born on Jan. 29, 1939, Gleichenhaus grew up in the Bronx in New York City. After graduating high school at 16, he attended Blair Academy and Cornell University, eventually leaving Cornell to attend his dream school, the United States Military Academy at West Point. He graduated from West Point in 1961 and later earned a master’s degree in physical education at the University of Wisconsin.
Gleichenhaus’ three-decade Army service included two combat tours in Vietnam, first with the infantry and later in the artillery, according to family. He was highly decorated, earning three Bronze Star Medals, five combat Air Medals, two Republic of Vietnam Gallantry Crosses, a Combat Infantryman Badge and an Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal. He was stationed overseas in Panama and in Germany. He also spent several years at the Pentagon and had two assignments in the physical education department at West Point.
In 1985 he came to San Francisco, where he was assigned as deputy post commander and, later, inspector general at Sixth Army headquarters at the Presidio.
After retiring from the Army in 1990, Gleichenhaus worked in various jobs. He managed a medical group, had a short stint at a Silicon Valley startup, and served as dean at a business college in San Francisco. In 2001 he became the director of public works in Daly City, where he worked until he retired six years later.
Gleichenhaus and his wife, Barbara, were married 61 years and raised three children together. They had four grandchildren.
Gleichenhaus’s son told J. his dad led with generosity and knew how to make people feel seen and special.
“He had that unique ability, you were the only two there if he was engaging with you,” he said.
In a 2018 JCRC video that accompanied the leadership award, Joseph Gleichenhaus described his father as a “morning person” who made productivity part of every day.
“That’s how he operated. When you get things done you get them done quick, you come back, and you find you have lots more time to do a whole bunch of things,” he said, noting his father’s “extreme patience and amiability.”
Gleichenhaus’ eldest daughter, Wendy Veneris, spoke in the same video of her dad’s devotion to family, describing him as “honest and humble.”
“He always impressed upon us: If you are able to do something for your family, you do. If you can show up, you do,” she said.
Gleichenhaus was the president of San Francisco Congregation B’nai Emunah before it merged with Beth Israel Judea to become Am Tikvah. He served as chairman of Goodwill Industries and on the boards of the Bay Area Council of the Boys Scouts of America, the Lake Merced Golf Club, Interfaith Center at the Presidio, the Korean War Memorial Foundation, the JCRC and the West Point Jewish Chapel Fund. He was involved in numerous other projects and organizations.
“He was genuine and authentic and he saw the best in everyone,” Morissa Gleichenhaus, his youngest child, told J. “He never said a bad word about anybody. He sought out what made people spark and he would help enhance that. That’s what he did all the time. He focused on the positive.”