, an award-winning broadcast and broadband engineer whose culinary skills delighted guests at his homes in Washington, D.C., and overlooking Chesapeake Bay, died Aug. 9 at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore from complications associated with treatment from a cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
Peter, 64, was born in Baltimore on June 18, 1959, and grew up with his two brothers at the Chattolanee Hill home in Baltimore County of their parents, the late John Gill Wharton Sr. and Susan Pendleton Wharton.
Peter dedicated his life to innovation and progress in the broadcast technology industry and was a passionate, bright leader who will be missed by many. He also felt deeply about encouraging diversity and innovation in the next generation and was an active volunteer in the Founder’s Society and Board of Governors of his alma mater Gilman School.
Early in childhood, Peter excelled in electrical pursuits such as quickly assembling Radio Shack hobby kits at the kitchen table, operating short-wave and CB radios, and upgrading home and car stereo components. As a teenager, he assisted with PA communications at motocross events, and after graduating from the Gilman School in Baltimore in 1977, he enrolled at George Washington University and joined the staff at the campus radio station above Lisner Auditorium. He quickly became involved with the technical side of the music scene in the nation’s capital.
Peter’s career in network broadcasting began at ABC News, where his duties included being part of the White House press pool, working on its Sunday morning interview and roundtable telecast, and accompanying the networks’ teams covering presidential travels. He continued his career as an engineer at Fox News, where he was one of the first field engineers there running White House remotes around the U.S. and around the world. As his ABC colleagues have noted, ‘Peter always had a smarter, better, tech-savvier way to get things done. He always had time to share a new idea or how things worked.’
Post White House field work and Fox, Peter worked the other side of the desk, designing state-of-the-art monitoring, transmission, intake and storage systems at several industry-leading firms as a provider of technical services to broadcasters, most recently as Chief Cloud and Strategy Officer at TAG Video Systems, a company based in Israel. Peter’s work led to an Emmy award for broadcasting excellence, from his recent foundational work for a portable broadcast set for covering sports and other live events. Peter held both national and local leadership roles with the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers, which earlier inducted Peter as a fellow for individuals ‘who have, by proficiency and contributions, attained an outstanding rank among engineers or executives in the motion picture, television or related industries.’ The Society also notified him this month that he posthumously will be honored with the society’s President’s Award at its next convention.
While living in Washington, Peter met Grey Hautaluoma, and the couple eventually moved to a custom-built bayside home near Chesapeake Beach in Calvert County, where they married shortly after Maryland legally recognized their union. They loved their many canine companions, generally including a Jack Russell and two or more Basenjis, and spent much time planting and gardening around their wooded property. The couple enjoyed a beautiful life together for nearly 33 years.
Their house includes a beautiful kitchen, and Peter recently said his love of preparing great food came from experiencing its wonders at fine restaurants, and pondering how he could more affordably replicate that experience at home. Instead of following the instructions in a cookbook, he said he would look over the proteins and other ingredients he had in stock and formulate combinations of them for the evening’s menu.
In addition to his husband, Peter is survived by his two brothers, John G. Wharton Jr. and his wife Linda of California, Maryland, and Robert L. Wharton and his wife Kim, along with their children Connor, Luke and Alaina, of Littleton, Colorado, and two stepsiblings, Zoe Starr of Boca Raton, Florida, and Michael Starr and his wife Sally of Waipahu, Hawaii.
A memorial celebration of life is being planned for later this year.
Photo Credit: Ian Dawson
