Pete Panichpakdee was born in Bangkok, Thailand on January 2, 1952 to a large family. He came to the United States as a teenager, finishing his last two years of high school education at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe Springs, CA. He went on to complete four more years of schooling at Cal State University at Long Beach. Just a few credits short of graduating with an Engineering degree, Pete decided to quit school to pursue a business opportunity. He became a successful small business owner and ended up purchasing multiple liquor stores in Long Beach, including Loma Liquor on Broadway and Loma Ave. He also got into investment real estate, and continued to pursue that long after he sold his liquor stores.
Pete met his future wife at a Thai restaurant in Southern California, where she worked as a waitress. He took her to Disneyland on their first date. After marrying in a small ceremony in Las Vegas in 1978, Pete and Doungporn (“Ku”) settled on Winslow Avenue in Long Beach. When they were expecting their first child in 1981, they moved a few blocks over, into the newly constructed gated community of Del Lago. There, they raised two daughters and two sons, and lived in the same home for almost 40 years. In 2019, Pete and Ku purchased a house in the Naples area of Long Beach and fulfilled their dream to live by the water.
An avid golfer, Pete was a member at Old Ranch Country Club for many years. He and his wife played multiple times weekly with the same group of friends. They also enjoyed traveling and toured most of Europe and Asia in their retirement.
He was a devoted family man. He could always be found walking his pugs in the neighborhood, caddying for his son in a golf tournament, or picking his daughters up from college for the weekend. When he became a grandfather, there was rarely a day he did not see his grandsons.
Pete is survived by his wife, Doungporn; his children: Tanya, Mina, Ryan, and Robert, his son-in-law Jeremy Cook, and his grandsons Boden and Benton Cook.
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