Dean Peabody, 85, professor of psychology

Dean Peabody III, 85, of Media, who retired as a professor of psychology at Swarthmore College in September 1995 after more than 30 years on the faculty, died of respiratory failure Sunday, Sept. 29, after body surfing near his home in Sea Isle City, N.J.

Swarthmore president Rebecca Chopp noted in an e-mailed statement to the college community that "the college has lost not just a brilliant scholar and mentor to countless students and peers alike, but one of its most dedicated and revered members."

Chopp wrote that Dr. Peabody "was best known in his field for his study of personality, specifically for devising a thoughtful and inventive method for being less evaluative and more descriptive in judging others.

"He also was very interested in whether there are differences in personality across nations - what he called 'national character' - and studied six countries in National Characteristics," a book published in 1985 by Cambridge Press. It studied the peoples of the United States, Russia, Britain, Germany, France, and Italy.

In a website blurb, the book's publisher says, "Professor Peabody's systematic cross-national survey demonstrates the psychological characteristics of different nationalities do differ in fundamental ways."

Born in Brookline, Mass., Dr. Peabody earned a scholarship to Middlesex, a college preparatory school in Concord, Mass., from which he graduated in 1945.

He earned a bachelor's degree at Swarthmore in 1949 and a doctorate at Harvard University in 1960, both in psychology.

He joined the Tolstoy Foundation in Munich, Germany, after his Swarthmore graduation, son Bruce said, because "he felt that he missed the most defining event of his generation - which was participation in the war."

Dr. Peabody learned to speak Russian and helped refugees from the Soviet Union in several ways, his son said, "from finding family members to finding employment."

"Getting to know postwar Europe influenced him," he said, because so many "very different people were packed into a small space" in what was then West Germany.

He returned to the United States to teach at Columbia University in the 1959-60 academic year and at the University of Oregon in 1960-61.

In her statement to the college community, Chopp noted that he was chair of the Swarthmore psychology department from 1965 to 1967 and acting chair in 1972-73 and 1977-78.

He was a visiting teacher at, among other locations, the Institute for Advanced Study in Vienna in 1969-70 and the London School of Economics in 1986, she wrote.

Dr. Peabody's interests did not end at Swarthmore's driveway.

"He and I were scheduled to go to Switzerland," his son said, for a conference of the European Association of Personality Psychology in Lausanne. Bruce Peabody is a professor of political science at Fairleigh Dickinson University.

A note about Dr. Peabody's death on that group's website states that "the field has lost an influential scientist who has helped to shape the field due to his lifetime of exemplary scholarship."

Besides his son, Dr. Peabody is survived by sons Eric and Roy, a sister, and former wife Veronica. His second wife, Gisela, died in 2003.

A memorial service was set for 3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2, at Swarthmore Friends Meeting on the college campus.

Donations may be sent to the Dean Peabody '49 Memorial Fund, Attn: Gift Records, Swarthmore College, 500 College Ave., Swarthmore, Pa. 19081.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.spilkerfuneralhome.com