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Peter Leist, 62, of Denville, NJ was heading west on Route 301 in Carmel, NY, when he crossed over the double yellow lines to pass a few vehicles and collided head-on with a small bus, around 2:10 p.m. Friday, May 31, the Putnam County Sheriff's Office said.
Leist was pronounced dead at the scene and Route 301 was closed for around three hours for the investigation.
Leist was the president of his own financial advisory company, Leist Financial Group. The website says he began his career in 1994 at Ryan Beck and Company before switching to Smith Barney, then LPL Financial in 2009, where he worked until 2019 before creating his own financial-planning company.
"Peter was born and raised in grew up in Montville, NJ where he developed a love of cycling on the streets of his small town. He explored on his own searching for new adventures. As he got older he became interested in the mechanics of his bicycle; he wanted to know how it worked and why. He soon began diagnosing and fixing the bikes of the neighborhood children," the website says.
"This desire to understand how things work gave him the opportunity to apply this method and process to his career in financial services."
Leist was being remembered by Eric D. Hieger as a "man of passion, principle, adventure, and service."
An avid motorcyclist, Leist "invested a great deal of time, attention, and energy into the relationships and things he cared about most. In his work, he cared deeply for the people and families he served and always did what he felt was right," Hieger said.
"His passions will live on in the communities he left behind, and he will be remembered."
Lisa Anne Coscia commented on Hieger's Facebook post, saying:
"Not long ago when I had an opportunity to reconnect with him after growing up in the same neighborhood we were taking cars and driving and I often think about a question he asked me 'what's your favorite road to drive (it- my little car at the time) on?' That question and that road often make me think about taking time to enjoy the drive not just focus on the destination. Thanks Pete."
He is survived by his wife, Sarah Albanese.
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