Peter Maheu dies at age 73 of heart attack

Peter Maheu spent years working for his famous father, international spy Robert Maheu, and billionaire Howard Hughes.

He spent two years working for the CIA in Washington D.C., ran for sheriff in Tuscon, Arizona, and partied with astronauts in Las Vegas.

But near the end of his life, his sole focus was his individual and business investigation company, Global Intelligence International, and the employees he treated like family.

Maheu died of a heart attack Sunday in his Las Vegas home. He was 73.

“Peter was a very powerful person, but he didn’t wear it as a badge,” Global Intelligence’s human resource manager, Alex Silva said. “To me that’s what was really striking about him.”

Silva said Maheu worked closely with every employee at Global Intelligence and his mystery shopper company, QSI Specialists. Maheu would often take breaks from working to tell people stories about his time working for Hughes.

“He loved to talk about the old days,” Silva said. “He had a sense of pride in the work he did.”

Rosemary Maheu, Peter’s wife of 52 years, said he was a kind and caring man with a “very dry, almost sick sense of humor.”

“When we first started dating, he was appalled that I lived on the first floor of a building,” she said. “He bet me he could break in one day and have breakfast ready before I woke up, and he did it.”

Maheu also worked with the Honor Flight Network of Southern Nevada, a non-profit group that sends World War II veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials created in their honor.

A service to celebrate Maheu’s life will be held 11 a.m. Friday at St. Viator Catholic Church, 2461 E. Flamingo Road. His family asks that donations be made in his name to Honor Flight of Southern Nevada or the American Cancer Society in lieu of flowers.

Contact Max Michor at mmichor@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Find him on Twitter: @maxmichor