J. Peter Benet
May 4, 1943 – April 4, 2020

Peter Benet was born in Jamaica Queens, but grew up in San Antonio, Texas.  He was a graduate of the University of Texas in Austin, where he met and married Diana Trevino in 1965.  The following year, at the height of the Viet Nam War, Peter joined the US Air Force.  After Officer Training School, he spent his entire military career at McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kansas.  His assignment as an ICBM Missile Launch Officer kept him safely underground and, with the exception of the period of the Cuban missile crisis, was uneventful.  He resigned as a Captain after being offered a regular commission in the Air Force.      

In January 1972, Peter and Diana came to New York, where Peter expected to take over a family retail business.  But when this did not work out, he decided to go into the insurance business because he wanted his success to be linked directly to his own efforts.  A newcomer to New York, he did not have a network of local friends and relatives to help him with referrals.  In his early months at Equitable, Peter spent many hours cold-calling new parents from a “baby list,” trying to convince them of their need for insurance.  On more than one occasion, in order to reach the modest quota required of new agents, he sold Diana a policy.

The job Peter took soon became his vocation.  He was genuinely interested in his clients and their concerns.  Many of them became friends of more than 30 or 40 years’ standing; in addition to his advice, they appreciated his ability to remember their spouses’ and children’s names, as well as their birthdays.  Peter worked at the Equitable for more than 47 years.

Peter often said that, as a life insurance agent and estate planner, he “worked for widows and orphans.”  When he checked into the hospital after contracting Covid, he took his laptop, cellphone, and some case notes because he expected to look after business while he was there. Peter died on April 4, 2020, and is survived by Diana, his wife of almost 55 years, a brother, Jim Benet, two sisters, Gail Benezra and Lynn Reser, and a large extended family in Texas, where he and Diana also had a home.