H.D. Sliker

A funeral service: will be held 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 29th at Anderson Stevenson Wilke Funeral Home. A reception for family and friends and a Toast to Peter will be held in the funeral home immediately following the service.

Burial: will be July 6th in Lower Valley Union Cemetery, Califon, New Jersey.

H. Peter Sliker, 85 of Helena, MT passed away Friday, June 25, 2010 at St. Peters Hospital, Helena, MT. Peter had been a resident of the Waterford in Helena since March of this year.

Peter was born in Jersey City, New Jersey to Harry and Ella Sliker on June 7, 1925. He attended grade school and high school in Jersey City, graduating from Snyder High. He loved music and first sang on the radio at age 7. Peter enlisted in the Navy in 1942 and most of his time during WWII was spent in the North Atlantic on the Mumansk Run. After the war Peter was a purser on the U.S. lines. He was on the inaugural run of the U.S.S. United States crossing the Atlantic. That run still holds the record for time of an Atlantic crossing. He married Myra Warren in 1948. They later divorced. He attended both Rutgers University and Harvard University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Harvard in 1950. After receiving his degree in language, he lived in Cuba for a year to further his study of languages. He spoke six languages fluently.

Mr. Sliker pursued his love for music and began his operatic career at the New York City Opera. Shortly thereafter he was hired by the world famous Metropolitan Opera Company and enjoyed a career that spanned 31years. He was a bass- baritone who was a member of the chorus and performed many solo parts. Peter first solo recital was at Carnegie Hall on March 8, 1959. He also performed at Boston Symphony Hall and other leading halls throughout the country. He performed a benefit concert at the Myrna Loy Center in Helena in the 1990's. Mr. Sliker toured with the Met during summers traveling to all major American cities and abroad, including France and two trips to Japan.

Peter was preceded in death by his mother and father, Harry and Ella Sliker and his sister, Eleanor Orahoske.

Survivors include his niece, Ellen Weg Petrenko and her husband, Roman of Helena, MT; his grand-niece, Kristen Weg of Las Vegas, NV;. brother-in-law, Joseph Orahoske of Helena, MT; favorite cousins, Richard Korf of Ithica, NY; Dorothy Woodenschek of Bernardsville, NJ; Jane Petty of Hackettstown, NJ; and dear friends Doug Engle of Tallassee, TN and Oskar Bechler of Majkolola, HI.