Peter Barrett: A Life Under Sail
c. 2007, Donald P. Sanford
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Madison, Wisconsin is home to more than its share of celebrities. Nationally and internationally recognized educators, business leaders, sports figures, musicians and entertainers call Madison home. Although it’s the state capital, Madison behaves like a small town. It’s easy to cross paths with the talented people who live here. Back in the early 1960s Lon Schoor, now one of the Mendota Yacht Club’s top E scow skippers, had one of these experiences.
“I first met Peter Barrett in the early 1960s when I was in high school. His father was my principal at East High. Peter talked about his Olympics effort at the school auditorium one day.”
“Peter Barrett has the capacity for scholastic achievement and promise of
effective participation and leadership in other university activities.”
That’s what the selection committee at Cornell University said about this 17-year-old young man from Madison, Wisconsin when they awarded him a scholarship for their five-year program in civil engineering. I wonder just what crystal ball they looked into to see that this young man would have a successful career in business and education that spanned 30 years. Could they see that he would win medals at the highest level of competitive sailboat racing and become one of Madison’s Olympians?
GROWING UP IN MADISON
In May of 1952, Peter Barrett was a senior at East High School in Madison, Wisconsin. A good student, he ranked in the upper 10 percent of his class. But his efforts in the classroom were just part of his life at East High. Outside class, Peter kept busy with a host of other activities: National Honor Society, sports editor on the school newspaper, homeroom president, Student Council representative, and debate team member. An athlete, he was quarterback of East High’s football team and ran the mile in track. Outside of school, Peter was a Sea Scout and served as an alderman on the East 
Side Youth Mayor’s Council. And, by the time he finished high school, he had gotten hooked on sailing.
The son of Berneice and A. J. (Hunk) Barrett, Peter was born in 1935 at Madison General Hospital. Pete’s dad was the principal and football coach at East High. Peter’s mother, Berneice, an athlete in her own right, was the first Madison city tennis champion, both in women’s singles and mixed doubles in the mid 1930s. From the Barretts’ home at 455 N. Few Street, it was a short walk to both Lapham Elementary and East High Schools. Their home was also about a block from Lake Mendota.