Peter C. Trainer died peacefully at the Terraces in Orleans on April 12, 2025. The cause was vascular dementia, complicated by effects of a stroke in 2023. He was 76.
He was born in Perth Amboy, N.J. to Walter and Esther Trainer, who brought Peter to Dennis Port when he was nine months old. He learned to swim in Sand Pond and at West Dennis Beach, crabbed in Swan Pond, learned to shoot a rifle at the Dennis police firing range, and hunted small game in the woods and puckerbrush of the Mid and Lower Cape. He ran track and cross country at Dennis-Yarmouth Regional High School, graduating in 1966, and received a bachelor’s degree in zoology from UMass Amherst.
Peter was a Cape Cod National Seashore lifeguard in Truro and Provincetown, forming lifelong friendships during those summers. In 1971, he met his future wife, CCNS seasonal ranger naturalist Carol Etzold. They married in 1980, settling in Easton, Conn., where they lived for 30 years.
Peter followed in his father’s footsteps as a residential carpenter, working for contractors in Connecticut and New York. In the early 1990s, he started his own home remodeling business, Easton Carpentry, which he operated for over 20 years. He was known for meticulous work and attention to detail and was proud of his complicated moldings, perfect corners, and finished surfaces. He often invented his own tools and templates to solve specific problems. His basement and garage became warehouses for “pieces that I might need someday.”
Always a lover of the outdoors, Peter took his son, Glenn, camping in northern Connecticut on weekends and in Nickerson State Park and Yosemite and Sequoia national parks during school vacations.
Peter and Carol retired and moved to Orleans in 2014. He devoted his time to improving their house and property. Peter redesigned and remodeled their kitchen down to the studs, including moving a window and altering a doorway.
Peter said he was happiest “when his butt was in the bottom of a kayak.” He loved launching from Nauset Beach to fish for bluefish and stripers until the presence of sharks became too frequent for comfort. Peter also took estuary water quality samples from his kayak for the Orleans Water Quality Committee.
In the years following Peter and Carol’s move, they established new friendships and rekindled many old ones from their CCNS days. One of his newer friends said, “Peter was a truly kind man who always acted as if we were old friends to be warmly welcomed.”
Peter is survived by his wife of 45 years, Carol Etzold of Orleans; his son, Glenn Trainer and wife Laura Coe of Kirkland, Wash.; his grandson, Roman Trainer of Washington; his sisters, Sara Trainer of Dennis Port and Judi Long of Harwich; and numerous cousins.
His family expressed thanks to the caregivers at the Terraces for giving Peter the best possible quality of life during his last months. “The care they provided was more than highly professional, it was both personal and heartfelt,” said Carol.
