Written by Family and Friends

Dec. 3, 2014: Bronxville native Frederick Peter McGrath, better known as "Max" McGrath to readers of MyhometownBronxville.com, died on Monday, November 24, after a long and courageous battle with cancer. At the time of his death he lived in Jensen Beach, Florida. 

He is survived by his brother, Terence, and his sister, Erin. He is the son of the late Frederick O. McGrath of Bronxville and Kathleen Elizabeth Underhill. 

Peter grew up in Bronxville, where his greatest passion was football--playing guard on the Bronxville High School team. After high school he graduated from Fordham University.

He had a career in advertising and was a marketing executive in New York. In later years he was a Realtor in Florida for real estate on the East Coast. He was also a fine artist and a writer, contributing over 130 "Max McGrath" columns to MyhometownBronxville.com.

The weekly columns were about growing up in Bronxville and especially about playing football and attending (or escaping) classes at Bronxville High School. They became very popular and attracted a large readership, especially among high school classmates.  

With subtle humor and a touch of cynicism, Peter poked fun at the "stuffy" attitude of some Bronxville students and never missed an opportunity to criticize the teaching techniques used by the Bronxville faculty. He often wondered in his columns whose side they were on. 

His columns on football included vignettes about teammates and comments about how skilled some of them were. He played guard and was proud of the fact that when knocked down in a scrimmage, even if he were knocked out (which happened on occasion), he would get right back up and play again. 

Stories about the mischievous things he and his classmates did often filled a column. Beer parties on Scout Field, drag racing up and down Midland Avenue, and throwing detergent into Jack Parr's swimming pool are among the most notorious. 

At the end of his life, Peter wrote columns on what it was like to face cancer. He detailed the indignities of hospital life and the touch-and-go nature of it all. "Up one day, down the next." He heaped great praise on the nurses who took care of him and the doctors who kept coming back with one new treatment to try. The reader, while reading these columns, was left laughing and crying at the same time.

MyhometownBronxville.com received many emails from classmates and friends upon learning of his death expressing their great regret. Two of them in particular summed Peter up: "With all of his bluster, Pete had a heart of gold; he was a devoted friend and a very good man," said Jackie Auerbach. "He was so clever and so brave," said Nancy Protzman.

At the request of his family and his good friend Lene, Peter's 131 columns have been placed on a disc to be stored in the Local History Room in the Bronxville Public Library.

Donations in memory of Peter may be sent to St. Jude's Children's Hospital or Treasure Coast Hospice, Stuart, Florida.

Pictured here: Frederick Peter McGrath.

Photo courtesy the family