The Biography of
Peter George Silton
Los Angeles, California
2003
Lifetime Biography
Copyright 2003 all rights reserved
562-445-7059
Peter George Silton ńe Silberstein
Peter Silberstein was born in Vienna, Austria March
25, 1932. The name Silton comes from Silberstein,
which changed when the family came to the US in
1939. Peter and Bonnie Sturner, his second wife,
currently live at 11146 Montana Ave, Los Angeles,
California.
Peter did not develop any real expectation about
how his life would turn out, but two defining
moments stand out: (1) when he discovered he was
not a genius but nevertheless, he was very smart, and
(2) when he discovered he will not cross his
principles (and would not carry a gun in the US
Army.) These decisions altered his future.
Since their marriage, Peter and Bonnie have
traveled a lot. Bonnie is very active with her private
practice in Brentwood. In addition, she is on staff at
UCLA and teaches in the Doctoring program there.
Peter says that he did not develop close friendships
until recently. “My wife is my best friend, and I have
some friends now. My children, including my
stepchildren, are my friends.” Peter is most proud of
his relationships with his wife and children and
learning to get in touch with his emotions. “There are
so many wonderful new things to explore, books to
read and things to do… I now have a partner who
shares many of the things with me.”
Table of Contents
Personal and Family History .................................................. 3
Father - Bert Silton .............................................................. 3
Mother Esther Dichter-Silton ............................................. 4
Grandparents ....................................................................... 4
Family Life................................................................................ 5
Peter and Family in Vienna................................................. 5
Day to Day ............................................................................ 6
Religion ................................................................................. 6
Giving Back to the Community .......................................... 7
School Years ............................................................................. 9
Grade School and High School ........................................... 9
College and Graduate School .............................................11
Military Service .......................................................................13
Earning a Living .....................................................................14
Love and Romance ..................................................................20
Becoming a Parent ..................................................................22
Leaving the Nest ..................................................................24
Living .......................................................................................33
Beliefs and Expectations .....................................................34
Choices .................................................................................36
Favorites Now and Then.....................................................37
Leisure Time ........................................................................37
Predictions ...........................................................................38
Politics and People ..............................................................38
Standard Pedigree Tree ..........................................................39
Table of Figures ......................................................................40
Peter George Silton
Personal and Family History
Father - Bert Silton
Bert Silton, Peter’s father was born in Vienna,
Austria, in September 1899. He graduated from the
University of Vienna around 1923 as a Medical
Doctor. He was valedictorian of his class. In
September 1939, he brought his wife Esther and his
son Peter, to the US, narrowly escaping Austria after
the Anschluss. They lived in Chicago for a year, then
settled in St. Louis, Missouri near the Wahl family,
headed by the cousin of Peter’s grandfather Dichter.
Bert had a brother, Herman and a twin sister that died
in the European flu epidemic of 1918. It was the
worst epidemic of recorded history with casualties
that reached close to forty million people.
Herman arrived in St. Louis from Vienna earlier.
He brought with him the knowledge gained through
his work in clothing manufacturing. Herman and Bert
borrowed money from their cousin, Arron Fischer to
start a company that made leather jackets. The
company was called Silton Bothers. Herman ran the
plant and Bert was the salesman. He was on the road
eleven months a year, and traveled throughout the
United States. When World War II ended, he declared
that Santa Monica, California was the place he
wanted to live. So the brothers, along with Fred,
Herman’s son, moved the factory to Santa Monica.
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Peter George Silton
One day after moving, Bert and his family played
tennis in the morning, drove to Mount Waterman to
ski and returned to the ocean to say, “That’s why we
moved to California!” Bert lived in Santa Monica
until he passed away in his 80s.
Mother Esther Dichter-Silton
Esther Dichter-Silton was born in Vienna, Austria
in July 4, 1904. She had five sisters (Lotte, Rosel,
Gretel and Mina being four of them) and one brother,
Frank.
Esther was raised in the European style of the
1900, with a classical education, including piano
lessons. However, she deviated from that when her
father Leopold, promulgated that besides study,
women should also work. So she worked in the
family department store, Warenhaus Dichter.
After moving to the U.S., she kept the books and
financial records for Silton Brothers, the family
business. By the time the factory and family moved
to Santa Monica, Esther no longer needed to work as
the company bookkeeper. She lived in the house at
409 24th Street in Santa Monica until she was 89
years old and had to go into an assisted living home
with supervised care. She passed away at age 92.
Grandparents
Esther’s father, Leopold Dichter, was the member
of the family that had the entrepreneur spirit. In 1924
and 1928 he went around the world, visiting his
cousins in Chicago and bringing back to Vienna a
miniature Taj Mahal from his travels through India.
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Peter George Silton
Through his ventures and travels, Leopold was
always an inspiration to Peter, who has also traveled
extensively and started a number of different
businesses. Leopold’s spark was so passed further. He
moved from Vienna to St. Louis and lived with Bert
and Esther. He took care of Peter, serving him lunch
and watching him before and after school.
In his mid-seventies, Leopold took to the streets in
St. Louis as a jobber of stuffed animals. He spoke
only German, but carried a little dictionary as he
traveled by streetcar to toy shops. He was a
remarkable person with the same courage and interest
to live an active and meaningful life in his seventies,
as in his early years. He made life count and remained
active until his death in Los Angeles, July 16, 1952.
Family Life
Peter and Family in Vienna
Peter’s family was extremely wealthy. They
had a country house where they spent weekends
in the summer. They had two cars, one a nine
passenger Horch town car and one a small Tatra.
When Peter was born, he had a wet nurse and a
nursemaid. He spent a lot of time at the country
house because the “myth of the day” was that
outdoor and fresh air was health for children.
When Peter was in town he was dressed as
little Lord Fauntleroy with white gloves and
stockings. Being a normal boy his gloves had to
be changed a couple of times a day. When he
was four he went to Anna Freud’s Nursery
school. He also went to the mountains with his
parents and had his first experience skiing. All
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Peter George Silton
this changed when he and his parents fled
Austria.
Day to Day
Peter is an only child and his parents were
from an era and culture where children did not
participate in family discussions. When the escaped
from Austria Peter was not told what was happening.
He had no idea why they had to leave in the middle of
the night and get on a plane to fly to a foreign county.
Because of his exclusion from family affairs Peter
found company in collecting stamps and reading after
school and on weekends. He was and remains an avid
reader.
Religion
Peter grandparents were orthodox and his parents
kept a kosher house with four complete sets of
dishes. One set was for non-meat products and one
was for meat products. The other two sets were used
during the week of Passover, when it was necessary
to change the dishes. Vegetables rice and potatoes
were neutral and could be used on either set.
When Peter’s parents left for the US they were able
to get one lift” out of Vienna. That lift contained
some heavy European mahogany furniture, of which
some reside in Peter’s daughter house today. It also
contained two sets of dishes so that they could
continue to keep a kosher house.
Unfortunately, one night, while they were living
in St. Louis, the Silton’s house was filled with the
deafening sound of a big crash. The cabinet holding
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Peter George Silton
all the dishes had pulled off the wall and over 100
dishes, cups and saucers were lying broken on the
floor. That was the end of the kosher household.
As a child living in America, Peter was sent to
Hebrew School at a small Orthodox temple. In that
temple the women and the men sat separately and
there was a curtain in front of the women’s section so
the men could not see them and be distracted from
their prayers. He learned to read and write Hebrew
without learning the history or the reasons why he
had to do it. Peter hated it. He was also sent to
Sunday school for reading of the Old Testament.
One Sunday, he decided to trick his parents.
While they were sleeping, Peter set all the clocks in
the house an hour ahead so his parents would think it
was too late to go to Sunday school. It would have
work if Peter’s father had not have checked his
wristwatch, which Peter had not managed to change.
Subsequently, Peter was forced to go, but he walked
very slowly, managing to miss half of it.
Peter’s Bar Mitzvah was in 1944, and at age 12
he did not understand anything about it. As an adult
in control of his life, Peter decided not to go to the
temple and he kept that promise for the next 20 years
until his son Michael was born. After that, he joined
Stephen Wise Reform temple feeling that it was
important for his children to have a Jewish education.
Giving Back to the Community
Peter believes in living a good life and helping
others improve their lives. In the 1980s, he mentored
a Hispanic youth at risk and established educational
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Peter George Silton
aid for children of homeless parents. In the 1990s, he
wrote two books on computer skills for children and
how to teach computer skills for parents. He also
mentored his own children to happy careers and
satisfying lives.
So far, during this decade, Peter has written
another two books that tell how to plan and transition
into retirement, which under Peter’s definition is
anything but retirement, it is a blueprint on how to
live a fulfilling and satisfying life in your “Third
Age.” He distills his years of living into usable advice
in his many workshops.
Peter is an American intellectual who believes in
living a spiritually and emotionally rich life and
showing others how they can too. His opinions
remain distinctive, while he keeps an open mind to
ideas and varied cultural values. Through his travels,
associations, readings and discussions, he researches
and studies the background and value systems of
many diverse and geographically dispersed people.
Is it all just a natural continuation of his early
dissertation on multi-valued logic and his youth
interests that led to a degree in philosophy and a long
flirt with pure math? Even now he loves to read
impenetrable books such as “The Advent of the
Algorithm”, “Fermat’s Theory” and “Einstein and
Picasso.”
8
Peter George Silton
School Years
Grade School and High School
Straight out of Austria at age seven, Peter entered
the first grade at the Polanski School in Chicago
where his family lived for a year when his parents
first came to the States. The first day of school, Peter
wore short leather pants and of course, spoke only
German. Needless to say, he made an impression and
was beaten up by the local bullies. Poor kid! After
one year his family moved to St. Louis, he started
second grade at Hemstead and continued until he
finished the 8th grade.
During the second grade, he started collecting
stamps. He joined a stamp club and was the only one
in the club with a catalog that showed the value of
each stamp. He made a number of financially
advantaged trades that foreshadowed some of his
dealing in later life. He enjoyed reading and spent
quiet hours at home with his grandfather Leopold
Dichter.
The move to Santa Monica coincided with the end
of the 8th grade for Peter. Peter was fairly neutral to
the idea, and found himself starting the 9th grade a
month after school started at Lincoln Junior High
School. The school counselor placed him in classes
that would have prepared him for a blue collar career
working with his hands, or in a trade, instead of going
to college.
9
Peter George Silton
He was told to take wood-shop, metal-shop and
typing classes, as he was unaware of the elective
courses concept. Outside school, Peter continued to
find company reading, playing tennis, and skiing.
He started to take more of an interest in his
education and managed to take some normal college
prep courses, but still found himself in classes that
prepared students for work in a trade instead of
college or a profession until a defining moment in the
10th grade.
…in High School there was an incident
that caused me to realize that I was
different and that I was smarter than a lot
of people. Not average. I solved a puzzle
for a boy who was in the “genius
category”. He told me that I did it faster
than anyone he had given it to, and that I
did it with excellent logic. After that, I
switched my classes from to Algebra,
Physics, and Chemistry.
Peter did well in those classes and was able to
take advanced placement classes in Physics, Algebra
and Solid Geometry instead of shop and
woodworking. In fact, Peter won inter-school
competitive debate matches and credits this study as
one of the best for building logical thinking and
organizational skills. Nevertheless, he found the
typing skills applicable to his future work.
10
Peter George Silton
Peter continued to play tennis and joined the
school tennis team while developing news and a
dramatic program on the school radio station. He
spent few summers working in the family business
cutting leather for jackets. Peter earned very good
grades in school but was unconcerned with the
“minuscule details and perfection” that would have
earned him top grades. Some would consider his
schoolwork to have “sloppy mistakes” while others
would consider them unimportant details compared to
Peter’s big picture mentality. He graduated in 1949 at
age 17.
College and Graduate School
While his parents moved to the US from Europe
and did not know much about American colleges, one
of Peter’s friends, Hanna Machlup, had deeper family
roots to the college life. Her father was a college
professor. The Machlup’s recommended two schools:
Swarthmore in Philadelphia or Reed College in
Oregon
They felt a small college was better, as class size
and access to the instructors was very important for
Peter to discover and explore his interests. Peter chose
Reed College because it was reputed and because
Oregon had good skiing. However, he did not forget
Swarthmore and two of his children went to that
excellent school.
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Peter George Silton
From the fall of 1949 to the spring of 1951 Peter’s
declared major was Chemistry. He believed that he
could find the answers to the Universe there. He was
looking for that one equation from which he could
learn everything about the world. Then he moved to
Organic Chemistry, which he found to be too much
like using a cookbook. He could also not be bothered
with weighing something to the 6th decimal place. So,
from the Fall of 1951 to the Spring of 1952 his major
was Physics. Which, subsequently, he discovered to
be mostly mechanics.
As he wanted a better view of the world, in the
Fall of 1952 he declared his major was Math. This
lasted about a year, and finally, he decided that what
he really wanted was to study Math-Philosophy in
order to find the answers to the Universe. In 1954 he
graduated with a degree in Philosophy and presented
his thesis on Multi-valued Logic, now known as
“fuzzy-logic.”
Peter was increasingly interested in the concept
and logic of computers, switches, one and zero, on/off
logic and the writings of the computer gurus of the
time. After Reed he entered UCLA graduate school to
study Philosophy. It was interesting to change from a
department that believed in John Dewey and Santana
to a school steeped in Logical Positivism. There were
a lot of great names teaching at UCLA (Han
Reichenbacker and Rudolf Carnap being two of
them), but even graduate students had little access to
them and Peter did not like the large classes and
limited access to instructors at UCLA. He was ready
for a change.
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Peter George Silton
Military Service
Peter received his draft notice when he graduated
from Reed College. He took basic training at Fort Ord
when the Army attempted to issue Peter a gun. Peter
had been involved with the Quakers in his college
years and would not accept the personal responsibility
of killing another human being. He politely and
firmly refused to accept the gun. And as a
consequence, he was made to wait while the Army
decided how to process him.
The classification of conscientious objector was
only available on a religious basis and Peter did not
fit into that category or for that matter, any other
existing category. So the Army sent him to a
Psychiatrist… who verified that Peter believed what
he was saying. After that, the Army sent him to Fort
Sam Houston in Texas where they tried again to issue
him a gun, and again he refused. This time he faced a
Court Marshal. Obviously, this was Texas.
Eventually, Peter was assigned to the Translator
Corps in Germany and was stationed in Toule,
France. Later he transferred to Kaiserslauten where
he translated for the MPs. His favorite assignment in
the Army was Ski Patrol in the Garmish-Partichircen.
He received an honorable discharge at the end of his
two-year term with the rank of Private.
13
Peter George Silton
In 1960, Peter used his GI bill to study French
Poetry and Existential Philosophy at the Sorbonne in
Paris. During that time he was also looking for a
European wife. He liked the Italian girls, but on
Sunday, when he wanted to hike in the country, they
had to go to church, so the romance never blossomed.
At the end of the school year, a friend
recommended him for a job as a chauffer to the wife
and daughter of the president of RCA. Peter drove the
two ladies around Europe, Spain, and the coast of
Spain for five months. After that, as he ran out of
money, his father suggested that he might want to
come home and try the family business. Peter was 30
and ready for a change.
Earning a Living
Peter joined Silton Brothers to learn the garment
manufacturing. As the passion for learning and the
thirst for knowledge was still there, Peter attended
extension classes at UCLA to learn time study, MTM
and other Industrial Engineering methods. In this
way, he earned a certificate in Industrial Engineering.
After about a year, he became the factory plant
manager for Silton Brothers. At one point he had to
move to Brigham City Utah to run the plant there,
because the Utah plant manager had a stroke.
Brigham City was voted the cleanest city in the
United States. Peter’s family moved with him and
they become one of the only two Jewish families in
the city.
14
Peter George Silton
When Silton Brothers decided to install a
computer system, Peter was the logical person to
oversee the installation. Again, he went back to
UCLA extension, learned how to program in Fortran
(a DOS based programming system which he never
used) and got a certificate in Computer Technology.
Peter designed the software and supervised the
programming. He discovered that he enjoyed working
with computers more than manufacturing.
His cousin, Fred (Uncle Herman’s son) was
Peter’s business partner and a lovable workaholic.
After Peter first child arrived, Peter wanted to spend
more time with his young family, which created
tension between Peter and Fred. So Peter sold his
share of the business to Fred and everybody was
happy.
After that, Peter and his wife Jill contemplated a
move to Europe when a friend who imported shirts
asked Peter to design a computer system for him.
After it was designed, he was asked to get contract
programmers to write the programs. He did, and the
system turned out so well, that another manufacturer
asked Peter to design another system. Peter and his
family stayed in Los Angeles.
At this time, Peter understood computers, business
and the apparel manufacturing industry and he was
able to translate the needs of the manufacturer to the
programmers. He designed software that used a
matrix to track clothing sizes - for example, shirts that
have different neck sizes and sleeve lengths. His
software tracked raw materials, shipments, inventory,
cash receipts, disbursements, accounts receivable,
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Peter George Silton
accounts payable and all of the manufacturing
information needed to run a factory.
The software first ran on the IBM 360 family of
mainframes and Peter’s company primarily
programmed with RPG and used some assembly
subroutines. Later the programs were re-written in
COBOL. The business grew to 10 clients and soon,
Peter had to buy time on five computer systems
across Los Angeles to run his software and support
his service bureau customers. He incorporated as
Silton Data.
Peter partnered with an ex-IBM employee, John
Smart who had been running one of the computers
used by Silton Data. John became the operations
manager due to his connect-the-dots detailed nature
and Peter was responsible for sales, interfacing with
clients and software application design. Peter talked
the language of the programmers and the industry.
Silton Data became Apparel Management Systems,
AMS. AMS expanded to New York, Dallas and
Montreal. But John was not comfortable with the
expansion. So Peter bought John out after being
partners for eight years.
Peter and his wife had three children, Michael,
Petra and Triana and their life together centered on
the children and the family. They have a friend who
also had two girls the same age as Petra and Triana
and the four girls often played together. The father,
David Perez was a Mexican Citizen and he explained
to Peter that there was a new law in Mexico that
permitted foreigners to lease beachfront property.
16
Peter George Silton
Peter became interested in developing a hotel in
Mexico, and partnered with David Perez. Peter
invested $ 25,000 and raised $250,000 in capital
mostly through his network of friends. Unfortunately,
the peso was severely devalued after the construction
was finished. Peter’s partner began to maneuver in
what Peter describes as “shenanigans.” The hotel had
to be sold and most of the people who invested in the
venture lost some of their money.
By now, AMS ran on Burroughs computer
systems. Burroughs was more advanced in terms of
on-line systems. Peter’s vision was often a few years
ahead of what the current hardware could accomplish
and he was always pushing the edge of technology.
When a client of AMS went bankrupt and was
acquired by another computer company, the client
sought to recover their losses by suing AMS and
Peter personally.
It was not that the client considered the service or
work performed by AMS to have caused their loss,
but they were hurting so badly they sought to obtain
money any way possible, even if it meant suing a
company that had helped them grow. Peter had started
a company from scratch, and built it by helping many
other companies grow. He had provided good service
to many people and helped their companies. The
lawsuit soured the experience and during a two-year
battle, AMS had to file Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
protection and Peter sold the software rights to his
employees. At this point life became so stressful that
Peter felt he could not take the additional stress of his
home life. It had turned to a more negative than
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Peter George Silton
positive influence. He told Jill he wanted a divorce
and moved out of the house.
Peter was ready for something new after this
stressful event and he started developing properties
and spreading his debt obligations over time so he
could satisfy them after selling his company. In the
late 80s he developed a factory building in downtown
Los Angeles, apartment buildings in Westwood and
remodeled houses in Pacific Palisades.
In 1992 his first book, How to Educate Your Child
with the Computer was published. Using the
Computer in Second Grade was published in 1994,
Active Retirement for Affluent Workaholics was
published in 2001, and Don’t Panic!! You Can Still
Retire was published in 2003. He leads seminars and
most recently began to develop a new workshop to
offer insight into the non-financial planning aspect of
retirement.
He is a member of the Over The Hill Gang a
club for skiers over 50 and the Plato Society, an
intellectual group that gives symposiums. It is
associated with UCLA people over 60. Some of the
members of Plato and Over The Hill Gang were
interviewed by Peter for his books. In his workshops,
Peter begins by defining his terminology in the
context of the book. About Active Retirement for
Affluent Workaholics, Peter says:
Work does not mean the job and
retirement does not mean stopping from
doing anything. I am a workaholic
because I am doing so many projects,
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Peter George Silton
none of which I am getting paid for. I
have to keep my mind active and do
what interests me. Our whole society is
built up of workaholics to some extent.
These are people who continuously have
the need to do something.
Bowker Biography describes Peter as:
Writer, Consultant, Teacher, Business Executive,
Volunteer, World Traveler and Sports Enthusiast,
Peter Silton is a man of many interests. At the
time he decided to Actively-Retire, Peter was the
owner of a software business with offices in New
York, Los Angeles, Montreal, Dubin South
Africa and Sydney Australia. After retirement at
age 59, he has written two books on computers
and education, developed business plans for
computer firms, taught entrepreneurial skills in
Russia, raised capital and structured multiple
business while traveling to 43 countries,
including little explored lands such as Suluwasi,
Bhutan, and Nepal, on top of that, skiing twentyfive days a year.
http://www.bowkerbios.com/bowkerbios/
peter_silton.htm
19
Peter George Silton
Love and Romance
Peter did not rush onto the dating scene and he
met his first girlfriend in the high school debate club.
During high school he was allowed to stay out until
1:00a.m. Peter dated fewer than a dozen women
before he married Jill Scheiman. They met at the
Hollywood Ski Club and Peter delivered a ski jacket
to her house. He was attracted to her because she was
European, she liked to sky, had a college education,
worked as a microbiologist and… was cute. But she
did not want to get married.
In order to convince her, Peter flew her mother
over from Sweden. The three of them tooled around
California in Peter’s Porsche and Beebe, Jill’s
Mother, convinced Jill to marry him. His parents liked
her and her parents liked him. Six months later,
August 1962, they were married in a civil ceremony.
About 75 people attended the reception at the Bel Air
Hotel and the couple spent their honeymoon in Aspen
and started their life together in an apartment at 7540
Fountain Ave in Hollywood.
The early years of the marriage were good and it
centered on their three children (Michael, Petra and
Triana) and travel. Jill was very involved with the
children. In the spare time she had, she took up flying
and got her license as well as instrument and seaplane
ratings. She also competed as co-pilot in a number of
cross-country races. Peter was not thrilled about this,
especially after she crashed in Texas during one
cross-country event.
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Peter George Silton
As the children grew-up and Peter faced trouble in
his business he felt the loss of his wife’s emotional
support and an increase in negativity and criticism.
He sought counseling and found himself telling the
counselor everything he should have been telling his
wife. He realized that if he was going to turn his
situation around, he needed a positive environment
and supportive atmosphere. Seeing that the marriage
was ending, he concentrated his efforts on their
children and nurturing his relationship with them
through and after the divorce. Their youngest child,
Triana, was in the 11th grade. The 22-year marriage
ended in divorce in 1988.
Divorce
In most divorces the partners blame each other.
Peter believes that in any divorce the fault rests with
both parties. Peter thinks that his problem was that he
could not express his needs for support and affection
to Jill, and that she did not recognize that Peter
needed some of the attention that she lavished on the
children. As a consequence, even today, Peter knows
she was a wonderful mother but somehow could
never really define her role as a wife.
New Love
Peter likes to tell amusing anecdotes to illustrate
his stories. When he met Bonnie Sturner, hiking in the
Sierra Club, he told her,
“I am having a little problem, and I can’t
seem to get any work done.” She said,
“Straighten out your desk and do one
thing at a time… by the way, what’s the
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Peter George Silton
problem?” Peter said, “I owe a million
dollars and have no idea how I am going
to pay it back.” To which Bonnie
replied, “That’s not a little problem!”
As mentioned earlier, eventually, Peter was able
to restructure his debt and make payments over time.
The lawsuit that he had fought for five years ended
when his employees bought the rights to run the
software without paying royalties and Peter filed
bankruptcy under Chapter 11. At age 58 Peter retired
from the Computer Industry. He married Bonnie two
years later, in 1992, and enjoys their friendship and
according to Peter, “…the relationship is excellent. It
is often more enjoyable to be alone together than to
go places or do things with other people.”
Becoming a Parent
Peter and Jill wanted a family and were married
two years when their first baby, Michael, was born
August 19, 1964 in Los Angeles. Peter used some of
his own money and borrowed some from his father
and the couple purchased a house at 902 Teakwood
Road in Brentwood. Petra was born June 8, 1967 and
Triana was born March 8, 1971 in Los Angeles.
Today, Michael is the CEO of Rainmaker Systems,
Inc. a company that he founded and took public in
1998. Petra, after a career as Chef, Restaurant
Manager and Food Consultant, is a homemaker with
three children, and Triana is Vice President of the
Janitors Labor Union in San Francisco.
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Peter George Silton
Peter sees his children often and when they were
small, he loved seeing the kids grow-up and found it
most difficult, “not telling them what to do.” As he
values education very much, he and Jill sent their
children to the best schools (meaning schools that
encourage students to discover and develop their
interests and explore many subjects and ideas.)
The family traveled many places together on
vacations, including Sweden, Africa, Peru, Russia,
Burma, and many others. When Michael was five
and Petra three years old, Jill, Peter and the two kids
went to Africa. Peter rented a Volkswagen Bus and
they drove six thousand miles through Kenya,
Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Peter taught the kids
to be independent and sent them to Hebrew school
and Israel to learn about their heritage and to Sweden
for summer camp to learn about their maternal
grandparents.
Peter’s method of discipline was to tell the
children he disapproved, when he did. It was very
difficult to be quiet about was his son’s choice for a
wife. Peter kept his opinion to himself, and the
marriage was brief. If he had it to do over again, he
would teach his children more about emotions. He
believes the best piece of advice he offered his
children is “…do what you really want to do. You can
do anything.” Peter is proud of each of his children as
a person and the way they live their lives.
23
Peter George Silton
Leaving the Nest
Michael attended Harvard High School in North
Hollywood and then moved on to Swarthmore
College. He completed Swarthmore in three years.
After graduation he worked for Peter’s company
earning $25,000 a year, when another company
offered him twice the amount. Peter encouraged the
move to broaden his work experience. Michael
worked for three other companies of various sizes
moving quickly to a very good annual salary and
managed a large group of employees as Marketing
Head for the Health Division of Basic-4. Seeing the
trend for a downturn that would lead to reduced
spending and a reduction in staff, Michael considered
an MBA. He was accepted at Stanford and Yale. He
discussed the idea with his Dad. Peter counted out the
tuition cost ($40,000 a year) and the opportunity cost
of leaving a job that paid $80,000. The benefits of the
education and the enhanced earning potential did not
measure up to the $240,000 cost for an MBA. Instead,
Michael became the youngest student accepted in the
MBA weekend program offered at UCLA and kept
his job.
Michael continued to work for Basic-4, and
considered working for Hewlett Packard or another
large company, but Peter suggested that with money
in the bank, no wife or family to support, it was a
good time to start out on his own. So Michael
decided to research alternatives and discussed with
Peter the idea that he wanted to sell shrink-wrapped
UNIX systems. It was 1993 and Michael was 29.
Peter was not convinced the idea would turn into a
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Peter George Silton
profitable business. He told Michael that if he sold
and shipped $20,000 of product in the six months, he
would help raise $250,000 in capital. Michael found
WordPerfect, Lotus and others software companies
willing to offer their product on a UNIX platform and
allow Michael to sell it.
After six months, Michael shipped $21,000 of
product in a month. Peter raised the capital from
friends, mostly psychologists and psychiatrists who
did not know anything about UNIX but trusted Peter
and Bonnie. After about five years, Michael saw that
the shrink wrap UNIX systems business would not
grow to the size he wanted, so he sold that division
and started another division that marketed
maintenance agreement and software upgrades.
The company was renamed Rainmaker Systems,
Inc. Peter served on the board of directors for six
years, after which he recognized it was time to step
aside to make room for a board member who had
different experiences than his own. Michael still
confers with his Dad often. Headquartered in Scotts
Valley, Rainmaker Systems Inc. is a leading
outsource provider of sales and marketing for service
contracts. For example, when a company buys a
computer and the initial manufacturer’s warranty
expires, Rainmaker offers maintenance contract for
the computer. His clients include Hewlett Packard,
Dell and Cisco.
Michael is very much like his father in appearance
and business savvy. He led the company to a public
offering just before the market downturn of 2000 that
saw many dotcoms go bust. The company was
25
Peter George Silton
loosing five and six million dollars a year, was
spending heavily on marketing and had many
employees since it needed to grow to a size that could
go public. Michael, like Peter, figured out how to
restructure and regroup to focus on the essential
strengths of the company and after a few years of belt
tightening, Rainmaker is growing and headed toward
profit.
Petra attended Westlake High School, then
Georgetown for a year. She found it too structured
and transferred to the University of Pennsylvania. She
took her junior year abroad in France and at the end
of the year she studied at the Cordon Blue to improve
her cooking. She returned to the states and finished
her bachelors of arts in International Relations at the
University of Pennsylvania.
Back home in Los Angeles she announced that
she wanted to be a chef, so and she took a job
washing dishes at the Beverly Wilshire to start her
career. Speaking both Spanish and French she could
talk with the workers and the chefs. She worked her
way up to Sous-chef and realized that this was a
man’s kitchen. She went to work for California Pizza
Kitchen and after a year was running the Beverly
Hills operation. After three years, she saw that serious
management positions were reserved for men and she
would not be allowed to move into any meaningful
management role.
Peter encouraged her to follow-up with her
boyfriend, Michael Lisgarten, who was studying law
at Columbia University, to see if living with him
would move the relationship forward. It certainly did.
26
Peter George Silton
During this time in New York, Petra worked for a
catering service. After Michael graduated, he and
Petra married in 1994.
Michael was awarded the Sorro’s Fellowship to
teach American Law for a year in Estonia. Petra
consulted with restaurants in Estonia teaching them to
make chili so the patrons would buy more beer. She
also learned some Estonian. Peter jokes that as she
speaks Swedish and Estonian, she can go anywhere in
the world and not be understood! Fortunately, that is
only to complement her knowledge of Spanish and
French.
Petra and Michael have three wonderful children:
Noah Silton-Lisgarten, Kia Silton-Lisgarten and Ilan
Silton-Lisgarten. Peter describes Michael and Petra as
“super-doper parents, superb.” At this time, the baby
Ilan is three months old, Kia is two and a half year old
and Noah is five.
Peter sent his three children to Montessori schools
and his grandchildren also attend Montessori school.
Peter loves the fun and lovingness of being a
grandparent. He has to resist giving the grandchildren
everything, for their own good.
Triana went to Westlake High School. She was a
National Merit Scholar and in addition went to the US
Debate Finals garnering an 8th in the US in
impromptu speech. While Triana was at Westlake
College, she was awarded the “Most Valuable
Student.” This was a special new award created for
Triana. She graduated from Swarthmore in three and
a half years with double degrees and received two
27
Peter George Silton
grants even before she had finished. The Mac Arthur
grant was awarded to her to study the effect of
logging on the rain forest, and the Greenpeace grant
was awarded to her to study in Sweden. Peter
accompanied her to Brazil to study the rainforest.
After graduation, Triana lived in Great Britain,
working as a magazine writer for The Ecologist. She
made a study on the pollution caused by the
destruction and decomposition of Army materials.
She wrote an article for the Ecologist magazine
“Chemical Weapon Incineration in the United
States”. The report is very dense with technical
descriptions and measurements of her findings. (It is
five pages with 36 footnotes.)
England was not for Triana and after one year she
returned to Los Angeles and purchased a house in
Echo Park. On one visit home, Triana told her Dad
about her love interest. Triana said “he is a little older
than I am” As Peter recalls, it was an interesting
couple: he was 43 and she was 23, he was Philippi no,
she was European-American, he was a guerilla fighter
in the Philippines and she was a college graduate
from sunny California. But nevertheless, Triana went
with him to the Philippine jungles and lived there six
months. The relationship came to an end when the
FBI arrested him.
Triana is a champion for the less privileged and in
her work with the Janitors Union, she orchestrated a
big strike, Justice for Janitors with a sit-down at
Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards. It was an
enormously successful action and the 18,000 Union
members received pay increases and medical benefits.
28
Peter George Silton
Peter has a newspaper cutout picture of Triana being
arrested on her 25th birthday for sitting in the middle
of Wilshire and Westwood Boulevards. There was a
movie made of the story (starring a Hispanic woman,
not silver-spoon-white-women who really put it all
together.) Triana is a leading authority in the US on
this type of action and she consults to others who
work to help people achieve better treatment in their
work.
Peter laughs when he tells about Trina’s
disappointments with her father. First, she can never
become the President of the Union because (1) she
was not born with a Spanish surname – although she
speaks “Spanish like a Cuban”, (2) she went to the
best schools, and (3) she has a trust fund...
A New Life
After the divorce Peter started to date. He looked
for someone who was his intellectual equal and
enjoyed the same things he did. His key interests
were hiking, skiing, travel and music. He met Bonnie
Sturner on a hike at the Sierra Club.
When Peter and Bonnie started to date, he met
her two children, Tony and Debbie Romain and her
dog, Benson. Benson immediately liked Peter but it
took longer with Tony and Debbie. Tony was just 13
and Debbie was 17. Peter recalls that after going out
together a few times, Bonnie invited him to her
house.
29
Peter George Silton
Tony had returned recently from Mexico and had
hepatitis. He came into the room where Peter was and
began to get acquainted. Peter asked him what he was
doing, he asked him about school, and Tony started
to talk. Although their parents had been divorced for
some years, and Bonnie had dated a few men before
meeting Peter, Debbie was still suffering from her
parent’s divorce. She stayed in her room and flitted
between it and the bathroom, to avoid getting close to
Peter.
Peter smiles when he says that his keen sense of
parenting kicked in and he soon bribed Tony with a
talking watch. Then he tells how Tony prepared for
his Bah Mitzvah and welcomed Peter’s help, and how
Peter was honored to carry the cake for Tony.
Peter became interested in seeing Tony and
Debbie do well, and understood how different he was
from their father, a cautious person and an attorney.
Peter says that Bonnie would say to him that he
“jumps and then looks to see if there is water in the
pool.” Tony took it further and says “Peter jumps
and then looks to see if there is a pool!”
Soon after meeting Tony and Debbie, Peter
showed Bonnie how to get Tony into Crossroads (an
excellent school) got him a computer, and
encouraged him to learn about them. Tony and Peter
became friends. Tony left home for college in
Oregon. After a year there, he transferred to Boston
University and completed a degree in Film Making.
He took a job as a Production Manager and
worked on the movie 8 Millimeter with Nicolas Cage.
30
Peter George Silton
It was not a very good movie and Tony was
disappointed to have spent an entire year of his life
working on something he did not want to tell his
friends about. Tony considered changing his career
and discussed this with Bonnie and Peter. Peter told
him the motion graphics field was just developing
and it might be a good choice for him. Tony enjoyed
cartooning, and it seemed like a good possibility.
Bonnie and Peter offered to support him a few
semesters while he went back to school. Tony chose
the UCLA Extension program and within six months
was working in motion graphics. He was 23-years old
and an independent contractor earning good money
doing something he enjoyed. He has worked on
several TV shows that he is proud to talk about
(example: Echo Challenge and Blind Date.)
Tony considered moving to Seattle to explore
work opportunities there, and Peter and Bonnie
suggested he should stay in Los Angeles, and look
for a house instead. Soon, he found one and Bonnie
and Peter helped him with the down-payment…
Obviously, this is how Peter manipulates his
children… Tony stayed in Los Angeles, and today
has a successful business and is happy, and like
Triana, has started a list of disappointments with
Peter’s parenting style.
Debbie became accustomed to Peter and
gradually opened up to him and accepted his
influence in her life and family. Peter describes her as
extremely cute, and says that most of the boys who
met her also thought she was extremely cute, but she
was oblivious to the fact. As she left the nest, Debbie
31
Peter George Silton
thought she might like to study Law and she attended
Law School for a while before deciding it was not for
her. She enjoys Real Estate and currently works and
lives in San Diego.
Traveling
Since their marriage, Peter and Bonnie have
traveled to 43 countries. Bonnie has taken many
photographs and has had exhibits at UCLA and
The Santa Monica Library.
The exhibit, “Faces and Monuments”
represents selection from the world photos of
Bonnie. Bonnie and Peter use photos and text as a
vehicle to express their thoughts and feelings as
associated with travel, the feeling of capturing the
spirit of an individual in people’s faces, while
Peter is addicted to lines, curves and structure. The
photos in the exhibit represent Bhutan, Nepal,
Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, India, Cuba,
Estonia and Latvia.
Peter and Bonnie travel because they are
interested in other cultures, people, mountains,
statues and architecture. In their travels they visit
markets, local shops and schools, and bring books
and other supplies for the kids. They also bring
medical supplies. In addition they are interested in
UNESCO sites and world monuments.
32
Peter George Silton
Living
In 1994 Bonnie was found to have breast
cancer. Peter nursed her through the
chemotherapy and the radiation treatments
getting her different food all the time as she
could not stand the taste of things she had
thrown up, and she threw up pretty often. The
doctor said that she was the only woman he had
ever known that gained weight during chemo.
The entire process was very wearing on
Peter and at the end when Bonnie was
momentarily out of the woods she suggested that
Peter take a vacation. Peter Decided to go to
Nepal. This was his rationale:
My father developed his love for the
mountains when he was in the Austrian
Mountain troops during the First World
War. I was taken to the mountains at an
early age, in Austria when I was six, in
Colorado at age ten and then to Mammoth
Mountain, Sun Valley, Aspen, Mount Hood
and other places during my high school and
college days. After my father died, I came
up with the thought that my homage to him
and his life should be a trek into the
Himalayas.
He returned from 22 days in Nepal. During that
time he experienced a sense of exhilaration and
enjoyment, which became the foundation on which to
continue his life. But at the time of the actual
experience he didn’t feel that way:
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Peter George Silton
My muscles ached and my lungs felt
like exploding and I wondered why I
was doing this trek. In reflecting about
it, the best moments in my life occur
when I am stretched to the max, in an
effort to accomplish something very
difficult. Sixteen days of trekking in
the Himalayas were the hardest
physical exertion of my life. I was
stretched to my limit, fully involved
with every detail of my body,
concentrating on the here and now,
trekking, breathing and eating, just
putting one foot in front of the other
and every once in a while opening my
eyes and looking up.
Beliefs and Expectations
“Done is better than Good”. Peter tells how he
and Bonnie reached this motto. She was in school
working on her doctorial dissertation and obsessing
on it to no end. Peter and Bonnie discussed the
importance of the dissertation as it related to life after
completing the doctorate, meaning, how important
were the revisions and edits to fine tune the document
compared to the good work Bonnie could offer others
in her practice as a Psychologist? The outcome was
the motto, “Done is better than good.”
He also believes that, “The past is the past, bad
thing will happen but move on. For every bad thing
there is something good.” And often evaluates
decisions by saying, “What is the worst that can
happen?” Recently, he and Bonnie considered a trip
34
Peter George Silton
to China amidst the SARs scare. At the time, they
thought it too risky and they would forfeit their
$4,000 trip deposit with a mind to the idea, “What
would you do if money didn’t matter.”
Take a minute to think about this. It is very
powerful and liberating for those like Peter and
Bonnie who have lived with daily responsibilities of
work and providing for a family. With this
consideration out of the way, Peter and Bonnie
eventually decided to go to China after more
research. Peter’s thinking is published in his recent
newsletter.
We were not going to any cities that had
reported cases of SARS. The number of
cases of SARS (at that point in time) was
well under 200 compared with the Chinese
population of 1.54 billion. Most of the
contagion was with health workers that had
been in direct contact with SARS patients.
The death rate from SAR’s was about 4%.
All of this was prior to the minister of health
from Hong Kong being fired… And the
continual spread of the disease along with a
15 % death rate.
Peter believes it is important to help others. He
mentored Miguel, a Hispanic youth at risk from the
4th grade to Jr. College. He created an after school
program for youth at risk at the Neighborhood Youth
Association, a computer class for the Venice Boys
and Girls Club, and worked the last ten years at Coeur
d’Alene, a school where 20% of the students are
children of homeless parents. Peter continues to help
35
Peter George Silton
others and keeps it in perspective with living a good
life together with his wife, children and
grandchildren. He says: “There are so many
wonderful new things to explore, books to read and
things to do… I now have a partner who shares many
of the things with me.”
Choices
Peter did not develop any real expectation about
how his life would turn out, but two defining
moments stand out: (1) when he discovered he was
not a genius but nevertheless, he was very smart, and
(2) when he discovered he will not cross his
principles (and would not carry a gun in the US
Army.) These decisions altered his future.
Since their marriage, Peter and Bonnie have
traveled a lot. Bonnie is very active with her private
practice in Brentwood. In addition, she is on staff at
UCLA and teaches in the Doctoring program there.
Peter says that he did not develop close friendships
until recently. “My wife is my best friend, and I have
some friends now. My children, including my
stepchildren, are my friends.” Peter is most proud of
his relationships with his wife and children and
learning to get in touch with his emotions.
36
Peter George Silton
Favorites Now and Then
Favorites
Now
Then
Holiday
Birthday
Birthday
Hobby
Writing
Stamps
Board Game
Tetris
Monopoly
Card game
None
Poker
Outdoors
Mountains
Mountains
Food
Chocolate
Ice cream
Place
Aspen
Mammoth
Color
Blue
Blue
Animal
Dog
Dog
Season
Winter
Winter
Author
None
TS Eliot, Isaac
Asimov
Book
None
The Enormous
Room
Charity
Quakers
Leisure Time
Peter spends much of his time writing, reading
and working on projects. He goes to the gym, rides
his bicycle, hikes or skis 30 days a year as a way to
remain fit and healthy. He spends lots of time in his
37
Peter George Silton
office when he is not traveling or skiing or helping
others. This is Peter’s ideal life style.
Predictions
“Although I read a lot of Science Fiction, real life
is turned out stranger then fiction.” According to
Peter, the greatest promise for the future of the planet
is the Internet and the greatest danger is too many
people.
Politics and People
Peter’s family members were democrats so he
was, too. Today, he is a liberal who wants race
equality and healthcare, and he notes that the
Democrats seem to embody these values better than
the Republicans. The most important events to Peter
in his lifetime are World War II, McCarthy-ism and
the Vietnam War. Growing up Peter’s heroes were
intellectuals, Einstein, Bertrand Russell, ee Cummins,
Dewey and his Philosophy teachers at college. Peter
plans to run a symposium on what he considers the
most significant historical event and technology that
most changed the world during his lifetime, the
computer and the Internet. In conclusion, Peter
remains an educator, a mentor, an intellectual and
most important a good husband and father.
38
Peter George Silton
Standard Pedigree Tree
See the Peter Silton World Family Tree at
www.ancestry.com for more information.
39
Table of Figures
Figure 1 Peter with Grandfather Leopold
Figure 2 Esther and Bert Silton 1931
Figure 3 Peter with ski instructor
Figure 4 Peter in Junior High School 1948
Figure 5 Peter in the Army
Figure 6 Baby Peter
Figure 7 Hotel in Mexico
Figure 8 Peter with Miguel
Figure 9 Michael’s graduation, Peter, Petra, Michael
and Jill
Figure 10 Petra and Michael’s wedding
Figure 11 Bonnie and Peter’s wedding
Figure 12 Peter and Bonnie ski
Figure 13 Peter and Bonnie
Figure 14 Peter Nepal
Figure 15 Bonnie at Iguazu Falls
Figure 16 New Zealand
Figure 17 Mickey and I in Omaha
Figure 18 Family Bonnie and Peter in costumes
Figure 19 Bonnie and Peter in Italy
Figure 20 Bonnie and Peter in Carmel
Figure 21 Peter’s Great Grandfather
Peter George Silton
Figure 1 Peter with Grandfather Leopold
41
Peter George Silton
Figure 2 Esther and Bert Silton 1931
42
Peter George Silton
Figure 3 Peter with ski instructor
43
Peter George Silton
Figure 4 Peter in Junior High School 1948
44
Peter George Silton
Figure 5 Peter in the Army
45
Peter George Silton
Figure 6 Baby Peter
Figure 7 Hotel in Mexico
46
Peter George Silton
Figure 8 Peter with Miguel
Figure 9 Michael’s graduation, Peter, Petra, Michael and
Jill
47
Peter George Silton
Figure 10 Petra and Michael’s wedding
48
Peter George Silton
Figure 11 Bonnie and Peter’s wedding
49
Peter George Silton
Figure 12 Peter and Bonnie ski
50
Peter George Silton
Figure 13 Peter and Bonnie
51
Peter George Silton
Figure 14 Peter Nepal
52
Peter George Silton
Figure 15 Bonnie at Iguazu Falls
Figure 16 New Zealand
53
Peter George Silton
Figure 17 Mickey and I in Omaha
Figure 18 Family Bonnie and Peter in costumes
54
Peter George Silton
Figure 19 Bonnie and Peter in Italy
Figure 20 Bonnie and Peter in Carmel
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Peter George Silton
Figure 21 Peter’s Great Grandfather
56