UWM mourns the death of Bernard Peck, a long-time UWM benefactor whose family lent its name to the Peck School of the Arts.
Bernard Peck and his family played a major role in the purchase of the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts for UWM and the Peck School of the Arts was renamed in honor of his parents.
Peck, known as “Bernie” to his family and to friends at UWM, died Oct. 15 at age 88, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He and the Peck Foundation were instrumental in the university’s purchase of the Temple Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun building, which became the Helene Zelazo Center for the Performing Arts in 2000. In 1999, UWM’s School of the Arts was renamed the Peck School of the Arts, for his parents, Milton and Lillian Peck.
In this interview, from 2012, Peck talks about where his love of the arts comes from as well as how he got his start with UWM.
