Peter Hollings

Peter Fernhout Hollings, age 80, of Walterboro, South Carolina, entered into rest eternal Saturday afternoon, December 27, 2025, at the Trident Medical Center in North Charleston.

Born December 21, 1945, in Pasadena, California, he was raised in Charleston, South Carolina, a place he proudly called home. Peter was a man of remarkable intelligence. He left home to attend college at the young age of 16. He attended Rice University in Houston, Texas where he received his Bachelor of Arts in Classical Greek History.

After completing his undergraduate degree, Peter was an officer in the United States Navy. He served two terms in the Vietnam War. He was Navigator of the USS Farragut, a guided missile frigate. He also served as a gunnery officer on the USS Boston, a heavy cruiser.

After the Vietnam War, he returned to academic endeavors. Peter studied Management Information Systems and Finance at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He completed his MBA at MIT in 1973.

Peter’s career began to take shape in 1975, when he served as the Assistant Vice President at Citizens and Southern National Bank of South Carolina. One of his notable contributions in this role was pioneering the development of one of the very first ATMs in South Carolina.

After the birth of his daughter, Jessica, Peter returned to the Boston area in 1979. He lived with his family on a lake in Littleton, MA where he worked as a Management Consultant.

Peter’s desire to be part of the burgeoning field of information technology in New York’s financial sector brought him to Fairfield, Connecticut in 1983. Peter was dedicated to his family and his career. He commuted to New York City where he worked on Wall Street, as a Senior Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, and a Vice President at Paine Webber. Peter’s involvement in trading systems automation at Paine Webber led to his role as President of Integrated Analytics, Inc.

He went to Texas for continuing education, where he studied Aquaculture. Peter formed his own company, International Aquatech, LLC. He moved to The Republic of Panama to pursue a career in shrimp farming, where he was a business consultant and Manager of Desarrollo Camaronero Del Pacifico.

Peter moved to Atlanta, GA in 1992. There, he worked as Director of Client Services at Emory Hospital’s Information Services department.

Peter also distinguished himself through a fifteen-year tenure as a Manager for the Institute for Professionals in Taxation, a nonprofit educational organization. Additionally, he worked as a real estate investor and manager of two family-owned real estate holding enterprises.

In 2011, he met his beloved wife, Mary Villion de Benveniste, a former model and talented portrait artist. Together, they moved from Atlanta to Walterboro, SC where they made the Historic District of Walterboro, South Carolina their home. Together, they continued the preservation of one of Walterboro’s oldest and most historic homes.

Peter was a polymath; the scope of his knowledge was extraordinary. Peter was an avid gardener. He had an astonishing breadth of knowledge when it came to plants. In fact, his range of knowledge on many subjects was quite remarkable, especially regarding science, biology, and nature. He created landscape gardens, water gardens, vegetable gardens. He kept orchids and aquariums. He was a beekeeper and raised farm animals. He loved being on the water. He enjoyed fishing, crabbing, claiming, and sailing.

Peter valued knowledge. He loved to read and was an autodidact.

Surviving in addition to his wife, Mary Villion de Benveniste are: his daughter, Jessica Hollings Shatzer and her husband John of Summerville, South Carolina; his former wife Jennifer Norton Hollings of Bridgeport, Connecticut; his sister, Julie Hollings Bower of Johns Creek, Georgia. He is also survived by Mary’s two children, Marie-Isabelle Villon de Benveniste of Paris, France and Guillaume Franćois Villon de Benveniste (Claire) of Paris, France; as well as three grandchildren, Charles and Josephine and Tatiana de Vaucorbeil, .

Peter was preceded in death by his parents, Mary Fernhout Hollings and Robert Meyer Hollings, Sr.; a sister, Mary Pamela Hollings McConnell; a brother, Robert Meyer Hollings, Jr; an uncle, Senator Ernest F. Hollings; and two aunts, Barbara Hollings Siegling and Marie Hollings Epps.

The Relatives and Friends of Peter Fernhout Hollings are invited to attend his funeral litany which will be conducted at 1 o’clock Saturday afternoon, January 10, 2026 from Saint Jude’s Church, on the corners of Wichman and Fishburn Streets in the Historic District of Walterboro. The Reverend Canon Newman Lawrence, Rector. Interment will follow in Live Oak Cemetery, South Jefferies Boulevard, Walterboro.

Arrangements by: THE BRICE W. HERNDON AND SONS FUNERAL HOMES AND CREMATORY, WALTERBORO CHAPEL, 1193 Bells Highway, Walterboro, 843.538.5408. Visit the registry online at: www.briceherndonfuneralhome.com.