Peter Buck of Yarmouth Port died unexpectedly on March 4th, 2024. He was 80 years old.

His career was spent teaching the history of science at UCLA, MIT, and Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D in 1968.

In addition to extensive travel, he and his wife, Deborah Wilkes, spent many happy years restoring an old mill in Conway, Massachusetts and had moved to Yarmouth Port in November of 2023 to retire.

Besides his wife, he leaves his much-loved stepdaughter, Scarlett Wilkes, his sister and brother-in-law Lisa and Jim Kerr of West Barnstable and his nephew Evan Kerr. He is also survived by a number of very close cousins.

A memorial service will be held near his birthplace in Oregon, where he always said he wanted to end his days. He was loved by friends, family and students and will be sorely missed.

Peter Buck was a good friend of mine in high school in Portland, Oregon. He was an outstanding student at Grant High School and received a National Merit Scholarship to Stanford, where he majored in mathematics. Peter’s father was a science teacher at Grant.