Writer, sculptor, and novelist, Peter Berlinrut (August 6, 1905 - October 27, 1988) was a resident of Roosevelt, NJ, for over 30 years. Fanning its original cooperative spark, he contributed selflessly to its civic life as well as the social needs of nearby communities.

Early on he worked as a construction coordinator and later as a substitute high school teacher, an experience he describes in a Commentary magazine article, "Notes of a Substitute Teacher" (April 1971). He also served as the town's Building Inspector and Zoning Officer.

More important, he was a philosopher whose writings on the question of time include "On the Passage of Time" (Commentary, July 1970), and a sculptor whose wood carvings include "Infinity" and "Unfolded Face," hauntingly simple and emotionally powerful works. His novel The Colloquists (Spectrum Press, 1979), a dialogue among "reflective minds caught each in the act of constructing its own reality," as University of Connecticut professor Jack Davis characterized it, which appeared at the end of his life, was praised for its stunning originality.