Peccolo, 59, Bookstore Owner, Dies

William Peccolo, 59, owner of the Blue Door Bookstore in Hillcrest for more than 25 years, died Oct. 3 in his home of a heart attack.

Peccolo is a native of Bizbee, Ariz., and a graduate of the University of Chicago. He moved to San Diego in 1955 and opened the bookstore in 1961.

The bookstore specializes in theater, poetry, gay and lesbian literature, and “emphasizes good, but unappreciated, writers of the 20th Century,” said Robert Plumb, a family friend and the bookstore’s manager. “We have a strange and wonderful collection.”

Peccolo wrote six or seven spy novels, set in the 1940s and 1950s, Plumb said.

“The few people that read them gave them rave reviews, but they were never published,” Plumb said.

Peccolo is survived by his wife, Mary; his mother, Alvira; and his sister, Helen Monahan of Farmington, N.M.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Oct. 18 at the large cross in Presidio Park. Donations may be sent to the Nature Conservancy or People for the American Way, an organization Peccolo took an interest in for its stand against banned books.