Instructor Profile
“Character may be manifested in the great moments, but it is made in the small ones."
-Winston Churchill
Meet Pete Selleck - By Lynn Lothman
If life can be imagined as a tapestry made up of the many threads of life experiences, then OLLI at Duke’s own Pete Selleck’s life is represented in a tapestry of many colors, textures, patterns, and designs. I met him on a cold and gray January day at JRC. Many of you know and respect Pete already but for me, at first glance, he seemed a pleasant, kind, grandfatherly type and I was relieved that he seemed amenable to the meeting. It wasn’t long into the interview that I realized this man has been logistically and strategically important to the history of our nation for the past sixty years, a man behind the scene who made things happen. His life’s tapestry is indeed colorful and intricate.
He was born on December 23, 1930 in Washington D.C., and christened Clyde Andrew Selleck, Jr. The name seemed a bit long and heavy for a wee baby; his mother called him “Pete,” a nickname that has persisted throughout his life.
Pete was the son of an Army officer and much of his own life was spent in the military, from his early years as a cadet at West Point to command of Army units and work with the Army Corps of Engineers. Just after graduation he served in the war in Korea commanding a combat engineer company. He later attended graduate school at Princeton receiving a master’s degree in civil engineering and later studied nuclear engineering at Northwestern and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He analyzed nuclear power plants for the Army; developed computer systems in an Army supply agency in France; commanded a combat engineer battalion in Vietnam where he restored the principal highway in the Mekong Delta after Tet in 1968; served on the Army Staff and as the Executive Director of Civil Works in the Office of the Chief of Engineers; commanded the Philadelphia District and Missouri River Division of the Corps of Engineers, managing many civil works and military construction projects, and taught on the faculty of the Army War College. He’s led a diverse life full of challenges, interesting people, historic events, and played an important role in 20th century progress.
Pete has been committed to OLLI at Duke since 1992 when the organization was named DILR (Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement.) He served as the president of DILR and on various committees including his current position on the curriculum committee. Pete has taught more than fifty courses, earning him the Bill Wright Award and a lifetime membership with OLLI. His positive contributions, leadership, and energy have been felt at every level of the organization.
“The first course I taught was a survey class on sources of energy and energy policy,” he said. “I had just retired from my second career as a project manager for an engineering and construction firm in Boston, and my wife Dolly and I had settled in Durham centrally located between our children in Washington D.C. and South Carolina.” Pete went on to teach computer courses, and various history courses such as ‘The Great Canals“, “The Accidental War” (World War I) and “Leadership in the Civil War,” to name a few. His challenging and varied career gave him the expertise, insights, and most importantly, the ability to detect the human thread that connected people and their personalities to the world, and to interpret the personal stories that make history interesting and alive. What keeps him teaching? Pete chooses to stay involved because he’s interested in a wide variety of subjects; he finds doing the necessary research prior to teaching a class to be invigorating and rewarding. OLLI students, often similar in age and experience also have made significant contributions to the discussions says Pete: “To relive the experience with likeminded people is a gift.”
When asked what has influenced his life the most, Pete did not hesitate. “The best break I ever got was meeting my wife, Dolly.” Pete was a cadet in his junior year at West Point when he was assigned a month-long visit to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, situated in the rolling hills of Surrey in the British countryside south of London. The senior American general in London extended an invitation to a party and although Pete imagined it would be a stuffy round of senior officers and their wives, he relented and accepted the invitation. To his surprise and relief it was a party for the general’s teen-age daughter and her friends. One of the daughter’s friends caught his eye and eventually captured his heart. They corresponded after he returned to the states, and reunited when her father was reassigned to Washington. Pete was soon deployed to combat duty in Korea, his father and sweetheart bidding him goodbye at the airport. What he remembers from that day were sadness in Dolly’s eyes and his father’s advice, “Don’t get captured!” Those words resonated with him because they came from his father who had spent nearly four years as a prisoner of war (POW) in World War II finally liberated by the Russians in Manchuria in 1945. “Dolly and I married in 1954 after I had returned from 15 months in Korea.”
What’s next for Pete?
He has decided to update his energy course. There have been significant changes in recent years, particularly with the increased supply of oil and natural gas and there is a pressing need to revise the policies of dealing with all sources and uses of energy. The next few months should see some new initiatives or at least the alteration of our more traditional ways of balancing our economic needs with other pressing factors including the environment. The subject is well worth some careful review.
Perhaps the course will be another colorful patch to Pete’s tapestry? Whatever he decides to do it will be interesting and colorful.
He was born on December 23, 1930 in Washington D.C., and christened Clyde Andrew Selleck, Jr. The name seemed a bit long and heavy for a wee baby; his mother called him “Pete,” a nickname that has persisted throughout his life.
Pete was the son of an Army officer and much of his own life was spent in the military, from his early years as a cadet at West Point to command of Army units and work with the Army Corps of Engineers. Just after graduation he served in the war in Korea commanding a combat engineer company. He later attended graduate school at Princeton receiving a master’s degree in civil engineering and later studied nuclear engineering at Northwestern and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. He analyzed nuclear power plants for the Army; developed computer systems in an Army supply agency in France; commanded a combat engineer battalion in Vietnam where he restored the principal highway in the Mekong Delta after Tet in 1968; served on the Army Staff and as the Executive Director of Civil Works in the Office of the Chief of Engineers; commanded the Philadelphia District and Missouri River Division of the Corps of Engineers, managing many civil works and military construction projects, and taught on the faculty of the Army War College. He’s led a diverse life full of challenges, interesting people, historic events, and played an important role in 20th century progress.
Pete has been committed to OLLI at Duke since 1992 when the organization was named DILR (Duke Institute for Learning in Retirement.) He served as the president of DILR and on various committees including his current position on the curriculum committee. Pete has taught more than fifty courses, earning him the Bill Wright Award and a lifetime membership with OLLI. His positive contributions, leadership, and energy have been felt at every level of the organization.
“The first course I taught was a survey class on sources of energy and energy policy,” he said. “I had just retired from my second career as a project manager for an engineering and construction firm in Boston, and my wife Dolly and I had settled in Durham centrally located between our children in Washington D.C. and South Carolina.” Pete went on to teach computer courses, and various history courses such as ‘The Great Canals“, “The Accidental War” (World War I) and “Leadership in the Civil War,” to name a few. His challenging and varied career gave him the expertise, insights, and most importantly, the ability to detect the human thread that connected people and their personalities to the world, and to interpret the personal stories that make history interesting and alive. What keeps him teaching? Pete chooses to stay involved because he’s interested in a wide variety of subjects; he finds doing the necessary research prior to teaching a class to be invigorating and rewarding. OLLI students, often similar in age and experience also have made significant contributions to the discussions says Pete: “To relive the experience with likeminded people is a gift.”
When asked what has influenced his life the most, Pete did not hesitate. “The best break I ever got was meeting my wife, Dolly.” Pete was a cadet in his junior year at West Point when he was assigned a month-long visit to the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst, situated in the rolling hills of Surrey in the British countryside south of London. The senior American general in London extended an invitation to a party and although Pete imagined it would be a stuffy round of senior officers and their wives, he relented and accepted the invitation. To his surprise and relief it was a party for the general’s teen-age daughter and her friends. One of the daughter’s friends caught his eye and eventually captured his heart. They corresponded after he returned to the states, and reunited when her father was reassigned to Washington. Pete was soon deployed to combat duty in Korea, his father and sweetheart bidding him goodbye at the airport. What he remembers from that day were sadness in Dolly’s eyes and his father’s advice, “Don’t get captured!” Those words resonated with him because they came from his father who had spent nearly four years as a prisoner of war (POW) in World War II finally liberated by the Russians in Manchuria in 1945. “Dolly and I married in 1954 after I had returned from 15 months in Korea.”
What’s next for Pete?
He has decided to update his energy course. There have been significant changes in recent years, particularly with the increased supply of oil and natural gas and there is a pressing need to revise the policies of dealing with all sources and uses of energy. The next few months should see some new initiatives or at least the alteration of our more traditional ways of balancing our economic needs with other pressing factors including the environment. The subject is well worth some careful review.
Perhaps the course will be another colorful patch to Pete’s tapestry? Whatever he decides to do it will be interesting and colorful.