Peter Campbell Sleight (1945–2010), R.I.P.

Just over 45 years ago, through the odd medium of cassette recordings exchanged between New Haven and Hawaii, I met Pete Sleight, who would be one of my closest friends until he died Sunday morning of a cancer so aggressive that the first symptoms had appeared only a month before.

Pete made one contribution to popular culture: A Yale Daily News article about his erratic academic career (he took ten years to get his Yale B.A.) reportedly inspired a portion of Gary Trudeau’s character Zonker. Aside from that, he did nothing that will go into the history books: served in the Navy during the Vietnam War, worked as an investigator for the General Services Administration, and wound up his government career in the personnel function of the Department of Agriculture, where he once scotched a phony scandal ginned up by Democratic Congressmen against a Republican Secretary.

No, on second thought, if the Yale Political Union ever becomes an historians’ pastime, he will be famous. During his prolonged undergraduate career, he chaired the Conservative Party, was a major figure in The Party of the Right, founded the short-lived but briefly important Federalist Party, and co-founded the Tory Party. He was one of the two or three best Union orators of his generation, among the few who could draw whisperers-in-the-anteroom back to a debate. He was also, I’m pretty sure, the only speaker ever to say something actually funny during the annual Humorous Debate.

He will also earn at least a few paragraphs if there are ever any histories of modern wargaming. He was an inveterate game player and a very skillful one. He won the Kingmaker tournament at the first Origins convention and had no trouble defeating me in most of our many contests. Memorably, we played a long series of Imperium games in the 1970’s for a wager of a fifth of bourbon per game. His liquor cabinet ended up well stocked. Back in our undergraduate days, we devised an election game, covering both the Presidency and Congress. We started the election cycles in 1492, pitting his New World Party against my Flat Earth Party, and eventually reached, if I recall correctly, the late 1500’s, with the New Worlders as dominant as he hoped the GOP will be after next Tuesday.

He died, as I said, with very little warning. One week, his appetite faded and he suffered severe insomnia. When I visited him earlier this month, he was able to force himself to eat but felt too tired to join a group of college buddies for our annual visit to the Maryland Renaissance Fair. The next week, he went to the hospital for tests. A week later, he was dead. I will miss him terribly, and am not the only one.

Comments

[Geri Sullivan]

Belated sympathies, Tom. I'm so sorry you've lost such a good, lifelong friend. I'm glad you saw him so recently, but, still, what a shock.

[Shelby Quast]

This made me cry and laugh ... all on the metro between meetings. I buy into the deep cover story, always have ... and I'm sticking to it. Christmas just wont be the same without that dry banter between Pete and his sister. We will remember him well.

[Eric Rasmusen]

Thank you, Tom, for that good post. I remember as an undergrad at Yale always enjoying the appearances of alumnus Sleight (we never called him "Peter"). There was speculation that despite his protestations that he worked for the General Accounting Office, he really worked at that old Yale playground, the CIA. Deep cover to the last, I guess.