Albert Ramsdell Gurney Jr. was born on November 1, 1930 and died on June 13, 2017.

He was sometimes credited as Pete Gurney.

He was an American playwright, novelist and academic.

Gurney was known for works including The Dining Room (1982), Sweet Sue (1986/7), Love Letters (1988), and The Cocktail Hour (1988).

Gurney’s series of plays about upper-class WASP life in contemporary America have been called “penetratingly witty studies of the WASP ascendancy in retreat.

He married into the Goodyear family and had four children.

After a while he relocted to New York to be near the theater, television, and publishers while he was on sabbatical from MIT.

A. R. Gurney passed away at 86 years old.