The Port Townsend Film Festival lost its brightest star on Thursday, April 16, when Artistic Director Peter Simpson died suddenly of cardiac arrest at his Port Townsend home. He was 74.

A memorial service is scheduled for Wednesday, April 29 at 4 p.m. at the Fort Worden Commons.

Born in Fairbanks, Alaska, on Aug. 12, 1934, Simpson came to Washington state as a boy when his family moved to Bainbridge Island. There, he would cross Puget Sound by ferry on Saturdays and spend the entire day watching movies, said his wife, Pat, who survives him along with their son, David, a graphic artist who lives in Ballard.

Many years later, Simpson shared his love and passion for the cinema as a vital contributor to the intricacies behind the film festival's silver screens. This year the festival celebrates its 10th year; Simpson was in the midst of planning a blowout party for the event, as well as several events leading up to it, when he passed away.

"Peter's unbridled enthusiasm for film never dimmed in the almost 10 years I came to the festival, which is amazing considering the wear and tear that film festivals can do to people," said Seattle film critic Robert Horton. "The PTFF always seems like a collective enterprise - from the programmers to the folks who sell posters - but Peter was unmistakably the solid center of the whole thing."

Passion for film

When Rocky Friedman, Jim Ewing, Jim Westall and Linda Yakush first met to brainstorm ideas for a local film festival, they quickly realized it was a job bigger than the four of them.

"Peter was the obvious next person that we wanted to join us," said Friedman, owner of the Rose Theatre.

Rocky and Peter had been friends for years. Long before email, Friedman sent Simpson a postcard with a movie trivia question on it. From that first card began several years of correspondence that Friedman treasures. Back and forth, they questioned each other's knowledge of film.

"I could never stump him. I, on the other hand, had to do research to answer his questions," Friedman recalled.

Among other artifacts Rocky has kept over the years are lists of Simpson's favorite movies. He particularly loved films from the '60s; his favorite ones from that decade were "The Graduate," "Jules and Jim," "Midnight Cowboy," "The Misfits," "Long Day's Journey Into Night" and "Oliver!"

Friedman also encouraged Simpson to apply for the festival director position after Linda Yakush dropped her dual role as executive director/artistic director to focus solely on the artistic side of things in 2002. Yakush and Simpson worked together with amazing harmony, needing very little communication.

"We had absolute faith in each other," said Yakush.

"I thought he would be the perfect person [for the job]," said Friedman. "Peter is an honest and humane individual, and I just knew he would be a wonderful person who would draw talent and volunteers to the festival. You can't help but be drawn into someone's orbit when they treat you so well."

When Yakush stepped away again in 2007, Peter switched hats and became artistic director.

Friedman also said Simpson was well qualified for the job because "Peter is an excellent writer" and would be able to write film synopses and press releases.

Writer and historian

Simpson received a bachelor's degree in journalism in 1956 from the University of Washington, where he met Pat, also a journalism major, whom he married in May 1957. The couple first came to Port Townsend in 1959. Among other jobs, Simpson worked for The Leader alongside Tom Camfield in the editorial department. He also lent his pen to Port Townsend: Years That Are Gone (1979, The Leader), cowritten with J. Hermanson; was editor and one of five contributors to City of Dreams: A Guide to Port Townsend (1986, Bay Press); wrote the Chief Chetzemoka chapter for Shadows of Our Ancestors (1991, Empty Bowl Press), edited by Jerry Gorsline; and cowrote Thomas T. Wilson: Paintings (University of Washington Press, 2004).

The success of the film festival had to do in part with Simpson's respect for the history of film, said Friedman. Many of the special guests Simpson brought to Port Townsend were retired or semi-retired, such as Tony Curtis, Eva Marie Saint, Patricia Neal and Piper Laurie, among others.

"[The festival is] always looking back and looking forward as well. I'm not aware of another one that takes that approach," Friedman observed.

Social service career

Earlier in his life, Simpson was also a successful community action administrator. After he and Pat came to Port Townsend in 1959, Simpson became the first executive director of the Clallam-Jefferson Community Action Council (now OlyCAP), leading that organization from 1966 to 1968.

Inspired by the cataclysmic events of 1968, Peter was inspired to serve at the national level. He took a job with the Head Start program, and his family relocated to the Washington, D.C., area. After 10 years they returned to Port Townsend, where Peter once again assumed a leadership position at the Community Action Council, becoming its executive director for a second time, serving from 1981 to 1991. Before being hired as the director of the Port Townsend Film Festival, he also worked for Copper Canyon Press as its associate director and development director.

Other community service included membership on the Northwest Maritime Center board of directors; member of the Copper Canyon Press board of trustees; president of the board of trustees (1988-1994) for the Washington State Historical Society, a board on which his service began in 1982; vice president of the Washington State Association of Community Action Agencies; executive committee member of the Washington State Rural Development Council; and member of the Port Townsend Arts Commission.

PTFF transition

After the 2009 film festival, Peter planned to retire and begin writing his family's history. After his death, Pat went into his walk-in closet and found several volumes of three-ring binders full of his genealogical research.

"When he told me this was going to be his last year, I just knew the festival would be facing its biggest transition yet," said Friedman.

"Peter's dedication and commitment is the reason that PTFF will be celebrating its 10th anniversary this September," said Toby Jordan, festival board president. He was really the one who moved us this far, by himself. We plan to make the 10th festival very special in honor of Peter."

In an interview with Simpson earlier this year, The Leader asked him what was his scariest moment in the past 10 years. Was it when the special guest dropped out at the last minute last year? No, he said, it was when he found himself facing a large fiscal deficit a few years back.

"A lot of people don't know this, but in the hard times Peter would take himself off the payroll and become a volunteer. He did this many, many times," said Jordan.

In that earlier interview, Peter smiled as he reflected on his years with the festival and concluded, "It's been a whale of a ride."