In Memoriam: Harman V.S. Peeke, PhD

Harman V.S. "Van" Peeke, PhD

Harman V.S. "Van" Peeke, PhD

Harman V.S. "Van" Peeke, PhD, native of San Francisco and resident of Glen Ellen, Calif., died peacefully at home on Friday, August 26, 2016. His wife of fifteen years, Sonoma teacher Shirley Austin-Peeke, his dear cousins, and his wife's family survive him. His mother, Helen Turner Peeke, and father, Edwin Slater Peeke, predeceased him.

Peeke was a Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. He was internationally known as an expert in the study of habituation, one of the most basic forms of learning, focusing originally on fish and crustacean behavior, but later extending his work to humans. Many of his seminal papers, published in Science and other influential journals, focused on the learning of aggression and its underlying neurochemical regulation, and on the behavioral conditioning of immune response. He also edited a series of definitive texts on habituation, which remain highly cited to this day. His career also included many years as a visiting scientist at the Bodega Marine Laboratory. He mentored a number of students and had an infectious enthusiasm for his work that he generously shared with his colleagues until his retirement in 2001.

He had a passion for trout streams, old time bluegrass music, USC football, sea battle stories, and most of all, his beloved dogs. He loved to see his sled dogs run ahead of him on the trail, but was just as content to sit and cuddle them. It is appropriate that he chose to pass on International Dog Day. His gentle heart extended kindness to all living things, and he will be greatly missed by all who knew him.

There will be no funeral services, but a celebration of life will be held at a later date. Donations in his name can be made to the Marine Conservation Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to securing protection for the oceans’ most important places, or to the Brain Support Network, which is instrumental in helping families donate tissue for cutting edge research on Lewy Body Dementia and other brain diseases.