Peter Eichenberger's first life ended in the spectacular crash of his beloved, vintage three-speed bicycle on Bickett Boulevard in 2006. His second life, the one that began as he emerged from a coma after that near-fatal crash, ended Thursday morning.
Eichenberger was 54. His death was related to complications from head injuries he suffered in that bike wreck.
Eichenberger was a prolific, opinionated writer for newspapers, magazines and his own blog. Before his accident, he could often be found at Sadlack's near N.C. State University, having a drink and explaining some obscure principle of thermal dynamics or thrashing some Republican ideal. After his accident, he more commonly held court at Morning Times coffee shop, where he could watch the city he had come to grudgingly love.
Many who knew Eichenberger felt the same about him.
"He was brilliant and compassionate and loving and maddening," said Joan Troy, a longtime friend. "If you read his work, he had these very, very strong opinions; the tone of voice was angry. But I think Peter loved everybody, even the people he denounced routinely. You couldn't help loving him."
Eichenberger was born in Cincinnati and moved with his family to Raleigh in 1963 when his father, Fred Eichenberger, went to work as a professor in the NCSU School of Design and his mother, Betty, became head of the art department at the former St. Mary's College.
Eichenberger earned a degree in industrial design from NCSU, and got a job at a tool company, according to his son, Raleigh artist David Eichenberger. But when his designs went into production and the company cut quality, "He was thoroughly discouraged."
For the rest of his working life, he relied more on the creative writing degree he earned from the University of Florida.
Eichenberg's letters to the editor appeared as reliably in The News & Observer as some of the paper's paid columnists. Later, Eichenberger became a columnist for Spectator magazine, and when Durham's Independent Weekly bought that, it brought Eichenberger on staff.
"He was a brilliant writer," said Richard Hart, who worked with him at the Indy in the early 2000s. "He had a way of seeing truth and seeing the world clearly that no one else had, and he wrote stories in which there was as much poetry as there was wit, insight and outrage."
More recently, Eichenberger had been producing his own blog, petrblt.wordpress.com/, and contributing to others. He was also doing some bicycle repair.
His interests were wide ranging. In his one-room apartment in Boylan Heights, he had hundreds of books. After indulging a decades-long love affair with huge, gas-guzzling cars, he eschewed autos in his later life, believing they wreaked havoc on the environment.
The biggest shift, however, was in his behavior after the bike crash.
"He would say he had a heart-to-heart with his brain," David Eichenberger said. He quit drinking almost entirely, quit smoking, and started rebuilding some bridges he had torched.
"You could say he became more connected to his family, and made more meaningful relationships," his son said. He biked or walked daily, exploring Crabtree Creek or the city's greenways.
Raleigh architect Kurt Eichenberger said his brother's sudden passing leaves the city a voice short.
"He wrote with great passion, and he wrote as he lived," Kurt Eichenberger said. "Some people live up to the edge. He lived a little over the edge. He wrote a little over the edge."
