NORWAY – Peter J. Wiley, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Tom Allen, D-Maine, and a native of Norway, died of an apparent heart attack Monday at the age of 59.
Wiley, most recently of Falmouth, died while visiting family in Florida, according to a statement from Allen’s office. He had served as Allen’s chief of staff for the past year.
Wiley was the son of Harold Wiley and the late Grace Tierney Wiley. He is survived by his father; his stepmother, Elaine; his wife, Betsy; his daughter, Martha; and granddaughter, Grace.
Wiley and his father owned Wiley Pontiac, an auto dealership with several area locations, until 1993 when they sold the business.
Wiley graduated from Oxford Hills High School in 1965 and Georgetown University in 1969. He obtained his law degree from the University of Maine School of Law and served in the Navy for four years.
Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday at Holy Martyrs Parish in Falmouth.
In the statement Allen called Wiley a “valued colleague and dear friend.”
“In the short year he served as my chief of staff, he ably led my staff in Maine and Washington through the storm surrounding the Base Realignment and Closure Commission’s recommendations last spring and the continuing legislative and constituent services issues that face us on a daily basis,” Allen said. “I shall always be grateful for his strong, effective leadership of this office.”
Wiley served on the staff of U.S. Sen. Edmund S. Muskie from 1966 to 1969 while a student at Georgetown. In 1986, former Gov. Joseph E. Brennan appointed Wiley the chairman of the Maine Board of Environmental Protection.
Wiley served as a senior staffer in the office of former Gov. Angus S. King Jr., from 1995 to 1998. Since 2000, until his appointment to Allen’s staff, Wiley was director of management consulting for the National Governors Association.
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