Portrait of Peter Rice, smiling, in a blue checked blazer.

About Peter

A father, a leader, and the road that changed him

Six weeks after losing his wife to cancer, Peter took his two young sons to walk the Camino de Santiago across Spain. Those roads became this book.

The story

Peter Rice lost his wife to cancer. Six weeks later, with grief still raw, he made a decision that sounds impossible. He took his two young sons, one of whom has a disability, across Spain to walk the Camino de Santiago.

What began as an attempt to simply survive the loss became something else. Across mountains and villages and long empty stretches of road, walking beside his children, Peter came to a new understanding of what leadership actually requires. Not control. Not titles. Endurance, presence, humility, and the willingness to carry responsibility when your own heart is breaking.

He has returned to the Camino again since, across Spain and Portugal. He wrote Break or Become to tell the story honestly: grief, fatherhood, faith, and service, and the quiet courage it takes to keep moving forward when life changes for good.

Peter, pack on his back, pushing his sons' trail chariot up a wooded gravel stretch of the Camino de Santiago.

The short version

He leads by day, and lived his argument the hard way

The convictions in this book are not theory. They were formed in the hardest season of his life, and they hold up under the weight of a real job and a real family.

CEOLeads Hanscom Federal Credit Union, a $2 billion+ institution serving more than 100,000 members
SenateTestified before the U.S. Senate Banking Committee
HarvardMaster's in finance from Harvard
HostHosts his own podcast, Gaining Grit
GlobalGrew up in Ireland, worked in Japan, and speaks Japanese
ServiceServes veterans and military families on national and regional boards
CaminoHas walked the Camino de Santiago across Spain and Portugal
FatherRaised two young sons on his own after losing his wife