Peter F. Grigas ’62 is the man with a plan—quite a few, actually. The city and regional planner has worked on plans for places as diverse as the island of Guam and Milton Keynes, which has grown from a sleepy English village of 500 inhabitants to 250,000 people today. “England’s one and only new city,” he says with pride.

Grigas also did some of the planning for the restoration of Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina, and developed comprehensive plans for communities in Delaware, Mississippi, New York, Vermont, and Washington. At 68, he’s still enjoying work as the director of planning and zoning for the exclusive Florida community of Ponce Inlet. He and Carol, his wife of 33 years, live in nearby DeLand.

Originally a business major at UMass Amherst, Grigas discovered his passion when he switched to landscape architecture. He praises the influence of “wonderful professors” such as Ray Otto, Bob Kent, Paul Procopio, and Theodore S. “Ted” Bacon, “who taught all the courses in city planning and really got me pointed in the right direction.” Grigas earned his master’s at the Pratt Institute.

When considering his estate plans—and the price of gas—Grigas decided to help the future planners who will create sustainable urban forms less dependent on the automobile. He made a bequest to benefit UMass Amherst’s College of Natural Resources & the Environment, which includes landscape architecture.

“I thought about the value of my UMass Amherst education, the influence it had on my life, and the possibilities it created for me,” says Grigas, ever the planner. “Once you do that kind of analysis, you find a way of giving back to the place that got you started.”

• UMass Amherst Planned Giving

For Information:
Pamela Acheson, Director
Gift and Estate Planning
413-577-1402; pacheson@admin.umass.edu