Peter Carroll Miles

COPAKE, NY - Peter Carroll Miles, a retired high school English teacher (George School, Newtown, PA) an avid rock climber, back packer, and longtime volunteer recruiter for The Student Conservation Association, passed away at home on Tuesday, April 14, 2026.

He was born in Great Barrington, MA on February 1, 1942, the son of Collins Loewe Miles (1909-1989) and Harriett Edmonds Miles (1906-1989) and the younger brother of William Deming Miles (1939-2014). He was raised on Mount Washington, MA and in Copake, NY and graduated from Roeliff Jansen Central School, Hillsdale, NY in 1960. He earned a bachelor’s degree in English (Earlham College, Richmond, IN 1964) and a MA in English (SUNY at Albany, 1966).

Mr. Miles never married but mentored hundreds of students during his career, including twenty international students. Individually and collectively, they became his extended family. In 2009 he helped start the high school wrestling program at Taconic Hills Central School, Craryville, NY and helped coach the team for its first two seasons.

Over his lifetime he traveled to 20 foreign countries, including two three-month sojourns to New Zealand where he hiked and climbed with fellow outdoorsmen. Although in robust health for most of his life, the ravages of advancing years caught up with him in his late 70’s, and he learned, as do we all, that, “death is not too high a price to pay for a fully lived life”.

He is survived by numerous relatives on both the Miles and Edmonds sides of his family. One of his final projects was curating the Holmes/Edmonds/Miles family letter collection dating back to the 1880’s which he has gifted to the University of Rochester, NY.

He was a lifelong member of the Church of Christ, Mount Washington, MA.

In accordance with his wishes there will be no funeral or calling hours. After cremation he will be interred in the family plot at Crossroads Cemetery on Mount Washington.

Donations in memory of Peter may be made to the Church of Christ Mount Washington, c/o Finnerty & Stevens Funeral Home, 426 Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230. To send remembrances to his family please go to www.finnertyandstevens.com