Peter Jay Landa

Peter Jay Landa of Easton, CT passed away peacefully on March 27th, 2021 surrounded by his loving family. He was 86 years old. Pete was born in Chicago, IL on January 20, 1935.

Pete was a loving father, husband, son, brother and friend. He touched everyone with his humor and easy going nature. He grew up in Maywood, Illinois where he played football, baseball and basketball as a schoolchild before heading to the University of Illinois where he studied Fine Arts and developed real loves for graphic design and Dixieland Jazz.

Pete pursued his passion for art throughout his career. As a resident of Manhattan through the early and mid 1960s, he worked with a series of book publishing and fine arts houses including Charles Scribner & Sons, Doubleday, Macmillan, Harpercollins, Turtleback Books and Warne in New York designing and providing illustrations for scores of novels, including Mission to Cathay, The Sign of the Chrysanthemum, Redcoat in Boston; cookbooks, including The Savor of the Sea; and children’s books including The Man of the House during this time.

Upon moving to Westport, CT, in the late 1960s, he worked at The Greenwood Press in Westport, and then later at the Greenwich Workshop in Trumbull, CT before becoming a full- time, self- employed artist.

As the Vice President and Creative Art Director at Greenwich Workshop, Pete was instrumental in developing and ensuring the artistic integrity that enabled the birth and growth of the Limited Edition Fine Print industry in the late 1970s through the 1980s. Pete worked with scores of renowned artists while at the Workshop such as Bev Doolitte, Charles Wysocki, James Christensen, Frank McCarthy, James Bama, Tom Lovell, Simon Combes and Alan Bean in a variety genres and became known himself for his large scale, high quality book design for the comprehensive retrospectives of these artists and many more.

He developed a love for Asian village, land and waterscapes while working for the U. S. Military’s “Stars and Stripes” newspaper in Korea and Japan post- Korean War. While in Tokyo, Pete studied under the master woodblock artist, Un’íchi Hiratsuka, the first artist to be given Japan’s national ‘ Order of the Sacred Treasure’. Many of Pete’s works depict the natural beauty of the ports and hillside villages he visited throughout the region during his time overseas. His work was regularly on display in a number of gallery shows throughout Fairfield County.

Outside of his career, Pete loved sports. He loved playing sports, watching sports, but most of all coaching the sports teams of his sons and their friends. “Coach” Landa was a fixture on the basketball courts, baseball diamonds and football fields in Westport where he was an instructor, mentor, and positive influence for hundreds of kids for nearly 20 years. Pete was also President of Westport’s Babe Ruth baseball league for a number of years.

Pete was the son of Ethel and Bastiaan Landa and is survived by his loving wife Kerrie, and her son, Geoffrey; Pete’s three loving sons, Stephen, Matthew and David, and their mother, Judith; seven grandchildren; and his loving brother, Dennis.

A celebration of Pete’s life will be held this summer at a location and date to be determined. In lieu of flowers, donations in Pete’s name to the Connecticut Food Bank will be appreciated.