Peteris Upite

Upite, Peteris
Born October 14, 1922 in Valmiera, Latvia the son of Ernest and Minnie Upite. He was the youngest of four children and the last survivor. Growing up in Latvia primarily in a rural environment; he graduated from the local industrial high school and became the chief mechanic of the Valmiera Dairy at the age of twenty one. When the war broke out in Latvia and most of the men his age were drafted he gained a deferment due to the criticality of his mechanics position.
In 1945, like thousands of other Latvians, he left Latvia as the communists invaded the country and escaped to Germany where he lived for five years in various Displaced Persons camps in which then was the British zone. At the time he enlisted in a work battalion under the control of the British Army. Like most refugees he pursued emigration to the United States which was granted in 1950.

Upon arrival in the US he eventually settled in West Allis, Wisconsin and began working at Allis Chalmers Co. as a mechanic and welder. In 1953 he met and married Lidija Baltabols a Latvian widow with a nine year old son. They spent most of their family life living in Milwaukee and New Berlin eventually retiring in 1984 to Delavan, WI. He and his wife Lidija spent a pleasant family oriented retirement on Delavan Lake hosting numerous family get togethers and pleasant holidays. His wife, Lidija passed away in September of 2011. Peteris died of natural causes on December 11 at the Aurora Zilber Family Hospice in Wauwatosa.
Peteris is survived by his stepson Guntis Baltabols, grandchildren Mara and Matiss of Woodstock, Il. and extended family in Boston, Grand Rapids, and Washington DC.

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