Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Peter Mallen, Atlanta Temple Ex-President, Dies in Fiery Plane Crash

The popular former president of an Atlanta synagogue was idenitified yesterday as one of two people who died when his small plane crashed in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood Tuesday.

Peter Mallen

Peter Mallen, 67, the founder of a high-tech textile company, was piloting the plane when it went down and exploded into flames near Interstate 285, the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported.

Officials say they are investigating and do not know the cause of the crash, which also killed a 26-year-old Emory University graduate.

Mallen, a married father of four, was president of the Temple in Atlanta from 2004 to 2006.

Friends and employees expressed their gratitude for Mallen’s warm smile and good nature.

“I only worked for Peter for two years,” Carla Silver said on the website of Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, which is handling services for Mallen. “I have never forgotten those days learning his business.”

It was Mallen’s second plane crash, and the second one to claim a life in his immediate family.

On Oct. 20, 1998, his small plane crash landed in a field near Rio Rancho, N.M., while on a flight from Las Vegas to Atlanta. Neither Mallen nor his passenger was injured, but the plane was destroyed.

In 1972, Mallen’s brother, Steven Mallen, was killed when his small plane crashed near Jasper, Ga., according to federal records.

Mallen was born and raised in Chatanooga, Tenn. After college, Mallen founded Mallen Industries, a textile manufacturing company. Peter married Janie Mallen on May 11, 1985, and they started a family together in Atlanta shortly thereafter.

He served as President of Mallen Industries, Chairman of United Knitting, President of The Temple in Atlanta, and was a member of the board of National Jewish Hospital in Denver as well as other notable institutions.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.