M. Scott Peck

 
M. Scott Peck was born on May 22, 1936 in New York City, the younger of two sons to David Warner Peck, a prominent lawyer and jurist, and his wife Elizabeth Saville.  He married Lily Ho in 1959, and they have three grown children.

Peck received his B.A. degree magna cum laude from Harvard College in 1958, and his M.D. degree from the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1963.  From 1963 until 1972, he served in the United States Army, resigning from the position of Assistant Chief Psychiatry and Neurology Consultant to the Surgeon General of the Army with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and the Meritorious Service Medal with oak leaf cluster.  From 1972 to 1983, Peck was engaged in the private practice of psychiatry in Litchfield County, Connecticut.

On March 9, 1980 at the age of 43, Peck was nondenominationally baptized by a Methodist minister in an Episcopalian convent (where he has frequently gone on retreat).

Peck's first book, The Road Less Traveled, was published by Simon & Schuster in 1978. The book has sold over six million copies to date in North America alone, and has been translated into over 20 languages.

Peck is a nationally recognized authority on the relationship between religion and science, and the science of psychology in particular. In 1992 Dr. Peck was selected by the American Psychiatric Association as a distinguished psychiatrist lecturer "for his outstanding achievement in the field of psychiatry as an educator,
researcher and clinician."

Peck, although now "semi-retired," still does some management consulting to top management of organizations in the public, private, and non profit sectors, as well as occasional writing and editing.

In 1984, Peck and his wife met with nine others to establish The Foundation for Community Encouragement, a tax-exempt, nonprofit, public educational foundation, whose mission is to promote and teach the principles of Community. The Foundation (FCE) has seventy selected and trained leaders who conduct workshops for the general public and for organizations as diverse as churches, schools, government agencies, prisons, universities and businesses - throughout the world. Although now both retired from FCE's Board of Directors, the Pecks continue to serve FCE in an "elder" status which represents the rare privilege of
being able to give advice without having any responsibility.

As a result of his pioneering community building work, Dr. Peck is the recipient of the 1984 Kaleidoscope Award for Peacemaking and the 1994 Temple International Peace Prize. In 1996 he was also recipient of The Learning, Faith and Freedom Medal from Georgetown University.

  

  

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Life is difficult.  This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths.  It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.  Once we truly know that life is difficult--once we truly understand and accept it-- then life is no longer difficult. Because once it is accepted, the fact that life is
difficult no longer matters.

M. Scott Peck