James Melvin Peet (1922-2007)

The University recently learned of the death of Mel Peet, who died on October 20, 2007.

For several years at AUB, Peet was an assistant professor in General Education, a precursor of the Cultural Studies Program. He arrived in Beirut in October, 1958, and taught in General Education until 1970, when he resigned from the University.

Peet served as chair of the program in the heady days when most teachers in Cultural Studies belonged to other departments; instructors came from such disciplines as English, history, and philosophy, and also from biology and physics. Against a backdrop of the old stone arches of the Peet's Beitr Mery house, professors read papers on their individual research. Peet was known for encouraging the sharing of research among faculty members, and also for his wry and caustic wit.

James Melvin Peet was born in Anarmosa, Iowa, in 1922, the same town in which he died. He was raised on a farm, attended Anarmosa High School, and went on to receive his BA with honors in English literature from the University of Iowa in 1944 and an MA in English literature and American and European history from Columbia University in New York City, where he lived for seven years. Following a period of teaching at Stetson University in Florida, he moved to AUB in the fall of 1958. After leaving AUB, he taught at Montgomery College in Maryland from 1970 until his retirement in 1986.

As reported in his hometown newspaper, Mel Peet "cultivated the liberal arts and the sciences of God and man, both professionally and privately, from his college days until the time of his death." His survivors include his wife, Mary Ann, and children Christina, Will, Anne, Mary-Minn, John, and Robert. He is also survived by three grandsons and a great-granddaughter.