Richard Peters, 1939–2018

Richard Peters, Cornell professor emeritus of education and the man a reporter for The Cornellian once called “a modern-day Aristotle,” died on Feb. 7.  He taught education at Cornell from 1988–2004.

Prior to Cornell, he taught secondary history and social studies for 23 years, including 21 at Mount Vernon High School. He was the Iowa High School Teacher of the Year in 1986, a Fulbright scholar to Egypt, and a Fellow of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Cornell awarded Peters with an honorary doctorate of humane letters in 1987, and he was Cornell’s Commencement speaker in 1990 and 2001.

Peters was a strong proponent of the liberal arts and was quoted in a 1999 Cornell Report cover story on that topic, saying, “A liberal arts education, with its variety and commitment to connection among the facets of learning, gives us equipment to design this life and understand it, and live it, and repair it.”