Funeral services for Dr. Morton Eaton Peck, 88, professor emeritus of biology at Willamette University and curator of the Peck Herbarium al the university, who died Friday, will be held Monday at 10 a. m. at the Clough-Barrick Chapel Dr. Daniel Schulze will officiate. , Dr. Peck had been ill for several years. Born March 12, 1871 t La- Porte, Iowa, Dr. Peck was the son of George D. arid Clara Eaton Peck. Graduated from Cornell College in 1895, Dr. Peck received his masters degree at that college and in 1940 his doctor of science degree from Cornell College. In 1955 Willamette University bestowed the degree of doctor of literature upon him. Head of the biology department at Willamette, when he retired in 1941, Dr. Peck came to the University in 1908 at professor of biology. Prior to that he had been professor of biology at Ellsworth College, Iowa and Iowan Wesleyan University. The Peck Herbarium, which Dr. Peck established in 1909, contain! 40,000 Oregon plants and is the largest collection in the state. Dr. Peck also made a botanical collection in British Honduras and was the author of "A Manual f the Higher Plants in Oregon." He recently completed the work of revising this manual and it will be printed by the Oregon State College Press through cooperation of the National Scientific Foundation. Dr. Peck was the author of other scientific papers and of "The Book of the Bardons" and other poems. His studies through the years included work at the Kew Gardens and British Museum of Natural History In London and at the herbarium of the University of Edinburgh. Dr. and Mrs. Peck spent their summer vacations in virtually all parts of Oregon collecting plants. In 1958 Dr. Peck received a citation from the Oregon Federation of Garden Clubs' for "Distinguished achievement in horticulture." Dr. Peck was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the American Botanical Society, California Academy of Science, California Botanical Society, California Ornithological Society and American Ornithological Society. Surviving are his widow, the former Jessie Grant, to whom he was married in 1905 in Iowa Falls; and two nephews, Dr. Gerald Prescott, East Lansing, Mich., and Ward Prescott, Salem.
Clipped from: The Capital Journal - Salem, Oregon - 05 Dec 1959, Sat • Page 5
Contributor: Kathy Jerrow (47986289)