I have so many fond memories of growing up in the Orchard Ridge neighborhood. The very first families who we met were the Arny's, Buchholtzs and the Flucks. We all spent countless hours during those years, participating in Girls Scouts, School Orchestras, Summer nights playing a variety of outdoor games out under the stars, neighborhood picnics, Birthday parties, hours doing jigsaw puzzles together, bike riding out to Verona and back, Christmas get-togethers and swimming up at the neighborhood pool are among the most vivid memories that I have. When we all parted ways after High School Graduation, every time we saw each other it was fun "catching up" on each other's lives. It always seemed as though no matter how much time had passed, the bonds remained strong as ever. Peg was always such a dear friend, and I am so saddened to learn of her passing. She will be dearly missed.

Visiting Peg and Gary

Peg and I grew up a lot during junior year in college. She was a fastidious roommate, I was less so. She posted a chart and gave me gold stars for making my bed; it was hilarious that I was outraged that I didn't get a star if the bed remained made just because I didn't sleep in it. We had fine times studying together, dissecting fetal pigs and physical laws. We both made contributions to scientific literature and lived life fully while doing so. RIP, friend.

studying, once again

Peg and Laura von Doenhoff visiting me

graduation — with Peg Fluck

studying physics — with Peg Fluck

Peg, my junior year roommate could be both silly and studious.

Peg and I worked side-by-side during my extended postdoc (1987-1992) in the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology.  If there was someone you could count on, that was Peg.  We had regular exchanges on anything from starch gel electrophoresis to morphometrics, and that only picked up speed when the DNA phase took over.  The friendship soon extended to our respective families, and we (my wife María Paz and our children Carolina and Pablo) visited Peg and Gary in Pleasanton many times.  If the season was right, picking raspberries and having them for desert was a great part of the ritual.  For several years after we returned to Uruguay, María Paz and I spent a summer month in Berkeley, and the visit to Pleasanton was always part of the wonderful benefits of those visits.  One of those visits was a bit different, as it took place during the 1994 soccer World Cup in the US: Maria Paz could not travel because of other commitments, but my son Pablo was there.  Soon after we got to Pleasanton, we learned that Gary was a volunteer for the World Cup and could give you an insider view of operations and some of the games in Stanford.

Peg was also instrumental in the early stages of my settling in Montevideo.  She spent several weeks in my lab in two visits in 1993-94, helping my students march through DNA sequence analysis (at the time, from the DNA sequences obtained in an x-ray picture of a sequencing gel to phylogenetic analysis and interpretation).  Around that time, Peg and Jim Patton published an important article on the phylogenetic of a major group of rodents (the sigmodontines), which provided an excellent example of "how" to get things done but, more importantly, "why".  We took time to catch some sigmodontines in a field trip to the Department of Maldonado (which was part of Darwin's trails during the Beagle expedition) and, together with Federico Hoffmann (then a masters student in my lab), published an article describing a new species of  "hocicudo" (genus Oxymycterus) in the Journal of Mammalogy.  That is a tangible result of Peg's dedication and generosity, but her positive influence on Uruguayan students far exceeds that particular effort.  

I am grateful for having had the opportunity to share so many things with Peg, from scholarly discussions to a few field trips, and from individual career development to family.

Peg was a long-time, dedicated volunteer at the Pleasanton Senior Center and managed the Center's volunteer database.  She was also a dear friend.  Before I detail her responsibilities, I want to say that Peg was brilliant (but you already knew that!).   Once a week, Peg participated in the Center's morning exercise class. Afterwards, would station herself at one of the staff member's computers, and begin the time-consuming task of entering and tallying each volunteer's hours into the computerized spreadsheet.  To add to that, the worksheet program was antiquated and complex (I could never figure it out), so Peg had to manipulate and update the processes often, so we could get the data for our volunteer reports.  She was so patient!   When we hit a snag, Peg would walk me through a complex way of pulling data so we could submit our reports.  Peg also showed great fortitude, driving herself to the Center every week, and working to keep herself independent.  Most of all, she was a joy and had a beautiful smile - an engaging and personable conversationalist who always took time to share her great travel adventures with husband Gary.  Over the years, we spend many hours talking about our mutual love for our National and state parks.  She was proud of her son Brian and his family, too!  May God bless Peg, and I am so grateful for her many years of service to our Pleasanton seniors and community.  

Peg in camp tent preparing a pocket gopher specimen, and escaping a howling wind outside