Peter William Melera

Peter William Melera
Born: February 19, 1942
Died: October 25, 2022
Peter William Melera, called affectionately Peter Willy by his Mom and known as Pete to his friends, passed from this earth on Tuesday, October 25, 2022. He is survived by his wife, Barb, his son, Peter Franklin, his daughter by marriage, Pam, and four grandchildren.

Peter was born on February 19, 1942 in a hamlet of Jersey City, NJ known as Fort Plains. He was to be the only child of Peter Paul Melera, a carpenter, and his wife, Vera Brown Melera, a corporate secretary. For the first 11 years of his life, his family lived in Fort Plains, and following the death of his maternal grandmother, his family moved to a farm on Slate Hill Road in Sharon Springs, NY. Throughout the rest of his 80+ years of life, despite residing in several states along the East Coast of the United States, he would call Sharon Springs his home and maintained his legal residence there.

He graduated from Sharon Springs Central School in 1960. Throughout his high school years he played soccer, basketball and baseball, was a member of MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship) and developed a talent for playing drums. He and the much beloved Norm Stoddard played and sang at many, many events – private and public - in the Upstate area. In that same year, Peter started his college and university education with a full scholarship in music at The Pennsylvania Military College. It did not take long for this strong willed young man to realize that the structured military life was not a good match for him. He appreciated the discipline, commitment, respect and love of country that are the foundation of a successful military career, but he was too much a “what if” thinker to have a successful military career.

He left The Pennsylvania Military College after one year and enrolled in SUNY Cobleskill where he received the degree of Associate in Applied Science in 1963. Thanks to a devoted professor at SUNY Cobleskill who realized the potential, dedication, work ethic and thirst for knowledge in his student, Peter was given a full scholarship to the University of Georgia in Athens, GA from which he received his B.S. and M.S. in Agriculture in 1965 and his Ph.D. in Plant Biochemistry in 1969 as an NDEA Title IV Fellow.

One of the many stories about Peter’s experiences at the University of Georgia involves the legendary football coach, Vince Dooley. Being a large-sized farm boy from a tiny village in very rural Upstate New York and never doubting that with enough hard work anything was possible, Peter tried to join Dooley’s nationally ranked Georgia Football Team as a walk-on. Peter often said that when he walked into the football players’ locker room that first day and saw a slew of players twice his size he knew he didn’t have a chance!

After graduation, Peter was awarded a Post-Doctoral Training Fellowship as a National Institutes for Health Fellow in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI. In 1972, he was recruited to join The Memorial Sloan-Kettering – Walker Laboratory in Rye, NY. He remained there until 1988 when he was recruited to The University of Maryland’s Medical School at Baltimore as Professor of Medicine and Director of The Molecular and Cell Biology Program (the largest interdisciplinary program in the University of Maryland System). In 2004, he left the University of Maryland to become the Associate Dean for Research and Professor of Medicine at The Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. He retired in 2018.

During his 50 years as a scientist, cancer researcher and teacher, he guided 40+ students to the completion of their Ph.D.’s and taught thousands of young medical students the principles of molecular and cell biology. He authored more than 100 papers which appeared in some of the most revered and respected medical journals in the world.

Peter worked with some extremely innovative scientists on problems in tumor cell biology only approachable by the molecular cloning techniques that emerged during the 70s and 80s and 90s. He made landmark contributions to the field of drug resistance by many cancers. Peter then began to explore why some tumor cells simultaneously became resistant to up to 20 different drugs that had no obvious similarities. He and the group he led cloned out the gene responsible for this effect. Peter's work was hugely important to our understanding of how tumor cells evade chemotherapeutic agents and become resistant to chemotherapy.

Though he aggressively pursued his intellectual and scientific objectives, Peter’s greatest passion was for the activities of The United States Coast Guard, The United States Coast Guard Academy and The United States Coast Guard Auxiliary. He joined Flotilla 62 of the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary, Third Coast Guard District in 1974. He rose through the Auxiliary organization assuming the responsibilities of District Commodore and finally, National Commodore in 1995 and 1996. He guided the Auxiliary through some very difficult issues during his terms as District and National Commodore.

The years from 1993-1997 saw great changes in the Coast Guard and its Auxiliary. As stated on the Auxiliary website, “Perhaps COMO Melera’s greatest contribution to the organization was his testimony on April 25, 1996 before The US House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Marine Transportation which helped to assure passage of the “Auxiliary Act” into law. This piece of legislation redefined the Auxiliary and provided authorization for the Commandant to utilize Auxiliarists to “…assist, the Coast Guard…In performing any…function, power, duty, role or mission or operation authorized by law,” and, most importantly, it provided the legal protection for them to do so. This was indeed a watershed event for the Auxiliary and laid the legal groundwork for the truly multi-mission organization it is today.”

For his efforts during a period of great change for the Coast Guard and the Coast Guard Auxiliary and for his strong support of the concept of “Team Coast Guard”, COMO was presented with the United States Coast Guard Auxiliary Distinguished Service Award in 1996.
Also in 1996, Peter was asked by The United States Coast Guard Academy to join their Board of Trustees. He served in this capacity from August, 1996-November, 2016 and became the longest serving Trustee in the history of the Board. For this service in November, 2016, Peter was awarded the United States Coast Guard Meritorious Service Medal for, as stated, “…for meritorious service in the performance of duty as a member of the Coast Guard Academy’s Board of Trustees…was instrumental in defining the Academy’s strategic priorities for more than 20 years delivering excellence in the academic, professional and physical development for over 6,700 students…”
At his retirement ceremony, the Academy and the Coast Guard brought together all the current Coast Guard cadets, the entire faculty of the Academy and senior admirals of the Coast Guard and with the assistance of NASA, piped in the first US Coast Guard astronaut who was residing on the International Space Station to acknowledge Peter’s service. It was the event of a lifetime and Peter never forgot it.
Despite his significant accomplishments in a diverse number of fields, Peter William Melera was a simple man. He always thought of himself as a farm boy from Sharon Springs who got lucky with his education and his profession. He loved his family, his Sharon Springs and his country. He was fiercely patriotic and a “card carrying member of the NRA”. Through his teaching, his research and his service to the Coast Guard, he truly did what so many leaders say they want to do today and don’t. He left this world a better place. May he rest in Peace.
And for those who knew him well, just how much trouble do you think he, and Herbie Vrooman and Max Lynk can cause in heaven today!
Viewing will be held at
Mereness-Putnam Funeral Home
171 Elm Street
Cobleskill, NY 12043
Thursday, November 3, 2022
5:00 – 7:00 PM
Service will take place at
Christian Community Church of Faith
355 State Route 7
Richmondville, NY
Friday, November 4, 2022
11:00 AM

Flowers are appreciated and the family is grateful. However, in the interests of supporting small and entrepreneurial businesses local businesses, please do not contact FTD. Instead, the local florist is Jenna Malette owner of Cross Hill Heirlooms, and her phone number is 518-369-1414.
If someone would prefer to make a donation in Peter’s name, please use the following link or address:
www.cgaalumni.org/cgatoday

Checks can be made out and mailed to:

U.S. Coast Guard Academy Alumni Association, Inc.
47 Mohegan Avenue
New London, CT 06320