In loving memory of Peter Chandler

By Baker Newman Noyes January 13, 2025

Today we celebrate the memory of our wonderful mentor and lifelong friend, Peter Chandler.

Peter Chandler, retired BNN tax principal, passed away on December 18, 2024. Peter joined the firm at BNN’s founding and served as principal until retiring to an “Of Counsel” role in 2018.

Peter will be greatly missed by the entire BNN team. We encourage you to take a few minutes to read Peter’s full obituary. A trained attorney as well as a CPA, Chandler focused his practice on complex tax reporting and advisory and succession planning strategies for commercial businesses, professional services firms, and family-owned businesses.

Peter was a master of his craft at Baker Newman Noyes. He effortlessly built a large group of clients under his care – not entirely due to actively pursuing new business, as most practitioners have to – but because of his reputation for having deep tax and accounting expertise. His partners and other colleagues at BNN regularly sought his input on complex matters, usually by showing up unannounced in his office. We all fondly remember his unselfish willingness to help, and the welcome look on his face when they realized first that their own proposed solution to a problem was not likely to pass muster and that Peter was “on the case.”

Peter had the unique ability to quickly recall laws and match them with a new fact pattern to come up with creative solutions – solutions he would teach his peers how to implement. He thus served many clients beyond his own at the firm, and served (and strengthened) his colleagues as well, who learned practical approaches to solving seemingly unsolvable issues. Many retiring principals step back from full time client care to become “of counsel” late in their careers. Peter’s constant collaboration with so many of the firm’s clients and his peers meant that he served both roles for most of his career – and no one did it better.

To me, Peter will always be the gold standard of what one should aspire to be as a tax professional or business advisor. He was creative, thoughtful, professional, caring, and brilliant. Everyone that interacted with him came away better for it and I was lucky to be one of those individuals for almost 25 years. For that, I am extremely fortunate. Peter’s legacy will live on with the many clients and accountants he helped throughout his career.

—Andrew Smith, Principal, Director of Tax Services & BNN Board Chair

 

Peter lived a full life and is missed by all who knew him.

Sincerely,

The BNN Team