Remembrance of Peter by Jennifer Brown
Peter was thrilled to be a member of the Psychology Department and could not believe his luck in doing a job he loved and was being paid for too! He felt it was an immense privilege to have the opportunity to read and think and he just loved discussing his latest reading and ideas. He was a delightful man with humour and warmth, gifts he freely shared. He had an insatiable intellectual curiosity and an acquisitive passion for knowledge which he added to every day, squirreling away facts and figures which would later come out connected and thoroughly thought out.
I was so pleased he had been able to finish his PhD on impulsivity. Peter was a perfectionist and was forever tinkering with the data and text thinking it was not going to be good enough. It was and in spades, he sailed through his viva and had only minor corrections.
I was very glad too he had the opportunity to share his other passion photography. I had asked him to organise an exhibition of his own photographs for some time. As ever, he was rather self deprecating about this but was persuaded to get together with Martin Milton, Dave Uzzell, Lynsey Gozna and Adrian Banks and put on an exhibition. The photos were stunning and can be seen on the Department’s web site.
Peter cared deeply about his subject and also for the students he worked with and for. He was always willing to help and was always so interested in everything.
I will miss his lively conversations about something he had just read and was itching to share, his willingness to be involved, his presence in the department.
Some thoughts from Peter Simpson
Peter made an extensive contribution to teaching on a number of Masters level modules. His response to and support of his students was always welcoming and productive.
His research interests, which culminated in him being awarded a PhD in 2008, were in the area of personality with a focus on impulsivity.
Peter said that his interest in personality and specifically impulsivity arose from his own personal experiences as a young man and later observations.
His early career after completing an undergraduate degree in Psychology at NELP included a number of different strands. He embarked on research degree but this did not turn out to be a fruitful choice. He took a teachers training course and then taught English as a foreign language in Turin, Italy. Peter was fluent in Italian and English. It was here that he met his wife Bridget.
Later he started a history degree at Birbeck College. While at Birbeck he became president of the student's union for one year.
Peter's interests were very wide. He always had several books `on the go' and read widely. His reading included philosophy, religion, history, and literature. He could often be found in Wates House at lunch time with a cup of his favourite americano coffee and a copy of the New York Review of Books. Peter enjoyed and was knowledgeable about the visual arts, and of late was developing his skills in photography and producing fine photographs. Peter enjoyed and had an extensive knowledge of classical music. He shared this interest with Bridget who had been an amateur singer for a number of years.
Peter strongly encouraged their son Daniel to develop piano and singing abilities. This has led to Daniel taking a music degree and develop his singing.
Peter's contributions to conversation were energetic, humorous and entertaining. Friends remember how Peter could `light up' a room.
An appreciation by Tom Daly
I first met Peter a decade ago when he encouraged me to take up his Psychometric Course. At the time, like all his students I found him both kind and supportive. Since then I have lunched regularly with him, and learned to appreciate his sense of joy and enthusiasm.
His room in the University is ample testimony to his many interests: at times bursting with catalogues on fine art; paintings; and photography – and of course articles on psychological constructs. Music too would sometimes be quietly playing: perhaps Schubert or Catherine Ferrier. This year he threw himself with his normal energy into the Psychology Dept. Exhibition on Photography: his muted picture of Guildford Cathedral the centre of his exhibit.
His devotion to his family, Bridget and Daniel, was clear to all who met him; and with his son the closeness of their relationship was a pleasure to hear. He spoke often of his son’s musical talent, and even learned to play the piano to plot and thus mirror Daniel’s progress.
His restless intellect was rarely stilled, and his recent doctorate acquired when most would have turned to lighter pleasures was he hoped just a start. A typical lunch discussion with him would cascade from spirituality to art, music, theatre and a recent article or book that had taken his fancy.
I last saw him when he was dying, free from the agony and uncertainty that had marked the last few months since his diagnosis. Although an untimely death, he died as he would have wished: with his family, at peace with himself and the world. He leaves behind his sense of joy and pleasure.
From Sarah Hampson
I grew to know Peter as his work on his PhD on impulsivity progressed. His wide-ranging intellectual enthusiasms made completing such a focused piece of work a challenge for him. My job was to keep him on course when he was attracted by all those enticing side alleys. It was a terrific achievement for Peter to finish his PhD, and what a good and timely one it was, no doubt because of the scope of his interest in the topic. His research has significantly added to the understanding of concept of impulsivity by integrating traditional psychometric approaches with laboratory measures of inhibition and attention. However, his PhD was just one part of his rich family, work, and cultural life, and he kept it in perspective. Peter knew how to live life intensely and enthusiastically. His untimely death reminds us that this is his most important legacy.
