VETERANS MEMORIAL Alumni MASTER_0033_Doerfler, Peter B.

Peter Benjamin Doerfler

Peter Benjamin Doerfler first attended NC Wesleyan University in 1961. He dropped out and joined the Army in 1964 serving in I Corps Vietnam from Spring 1965 until December 5, 1966. He arrived via troop ship, the USS Breckenridge, attached to MACV and later the 54th Signal Battalion and traveled from Cameron Bay to DaNang providing in country, field, and worldwide communication services. 

Sergeant Doerfler obtained a fourteen day early out in January 1968 in order to attend NC Wesleyan’s spring semester, in large part made possible by the GI BILL®. At Wesleyan, he met Gail Hopkins, a 1969 NC Wesleyan alumna, and they married that September. Peter graduated from North Carolina Wesleyan in 1970 and began his career working for Allstate in the service department, where he later became the Director of Building Services and Office Leasing within New England. He changed companies in 1979 and spent the next year planning, coordinating and overseeing the construction of the Corporate Headquarters for Security Insurance, later known as Orion Group.  Once completed, he was charged with Corporate Services at Security Insurance, which entailed building services as well as office procurement and moves within the US and Canada.   

Peter and his wife, Gail, a retired history teacher have three boys, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.