Gloria Breeskin Peck passed away on August 13 surrounded by her loved ones.

Gloria was born in 1926 in Pittsburg, PA, to future art historian Adelyn Dohme Breeskin and master violinist Elias Breeskin. Following a divorce when Gloria was 3, Adelyn moved the family to a home near the Dohme estate, known as Chestnutwood, in Baltimore, MD. There Gloria attended Friends School and was cared for by a governess as her mother worked full time in Museum administration. Gloria attended Vassar College, graduating in 1946, and worked briefly as a social worker before meeting Cornelius Peck at an informal party. Smitten, she enrolled in a Business Administration program at Radcliffe College to be near him as he attended Harvard Law School. The two married in 1949, honeymooned on The Appalachian Trail and in Europe, and lived seven years in Washington DC while Cornelius worked for the Justice Department. In 1956, Cornelius accepted a faculty position at the University of Washington’s Law School in Seattle. They drove west and bought a house on lower Capitol Hill for $14,000, close enough to campus that Cornelius could commute via bicycle. In 1962, Gloria published The Artists of Puget Sound, written in collaboration with friend Gordie Gale Albi. The following year, she and Cornelius left to travel the world on a Ford research grant with children 6, 5, and 3 in tow, spending six months in the Philippines, where their fourth child was born. The two continued to enjoy world travels throughout their 59 years of marriage.

A spectator Renaissance woman, Gloria led tours for the Seattle Art Museum throughout the ‘60s before completing an MA in Art History at the UW in 1974. With an incredible ear for classical music – she could name any classical piece after just a few notes – she raised funds to support the Seattle Chamber Music Society and Seattle Chamber Orchestra. Her eye for all things beautiful was evinced by her extensive art collection, including works by Mark Tobey, Jacob Lawrence, and George Tsutakawa. After Cornelius’ death in 2008, she took up poetry, philosophy, and short story writing through classes at Hugo House and Women’s University Club, publishing a Wordpress blog during her early 90s: ninedecadesofliving. In her final year, she made a host of new friends at Aegis Lake Union.

Her eldest daughter Adelyn died in 1997. Gloria is survived by children Neil, Louisa, and Marion Peck, grandchildren Garret and Cornelius Peck and Beatrice, John, and Damian Leverett. 

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