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By Marla Arvay Vol. 6, Issue 2 (Fall 2002)
Attendees to NAPCN 2002 were saddened
to hear of the loss of Dr. Vance Peavy on July 1, just prior to
the conference. Peavy was scheduled to speak at the conference and
was a known force in counselling psychology in western Canada and
beyond.
Born in rural Colorado in 1929, he completed his doctoral education at University of Oregon. He emigrated to Canada in 1967, joining the faculty at University of Victoria. There he led the establishment of a graduate education program in counselling psychology. During his career he supervised 16 PhD students and over 100 masters students, and published more than 100 articles, several books, book chapters, and professional videos. He was particularly proud that many of his PhD students hold tenured faculty position in Canadian universities including UVic and UBC. After his mandatory retirement at age 65 from UVIC in 1994, he became deeply involved in the development and implementation of his life’s research and interest: SocioDynamic counselling. This is a contemporary form of counselling organized around the principle of ‘self-creation’ which represents a philosophical response to the question, “How should I fashion my life?” Since his retirement, he has become an international authority on counselling, career development, vocational counselling, and life planning. He lectured and travelled with his wife Judith worldwide. He published books in Finnish, Danish, Swedish, and English on counselling topics.. In 2000 he received the Distinguished Senior Contributor Award from the Division of Counseling of the American Psychological Association for his lifetime contributions to the discipline of counselling psychology. In 2001 he was awarded the Stu Conger Award for leadership in Career Counselling and Career Development by the Canadian Career Development Foundation. Right up until the time of his death he continued to supervise and support graduate students in their research. He acted in many realms, deeply appreciating his friendships, the pursuit of wisdom, his family and life in his garden.
Dr. Vance Peavy |