The Passing of Marc Pilisuk: Scholar, Advocate, and Role Model for Peace

A meaningful life.

This is a hard week for the many who knew, worked with, and/or were mentored by Dr. Marc Pilisuk,  who passed away on August 20.  Marc was a founder of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, and a past president of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict and Violence, Division 48 of the American Psychological Association (APA.)  Marc was an accomplished professor and scholar (University of California Berkeley and Davis; Saybrook University) who inspired many to continue working on studies of peace and to advocate for real peace in the world. He  and his work were recognized by many awards and prizes, including recent lifetime achievement awards from the California Psychological Association, from APA Division 48,  and from APA Division 32, among many others. Every award was meaningful to him.

You can easily learn a lot about Marc's professional accomplishments in his bio and cv at Saybrook University's website  I want to also point out his account of his remarkable life, recorded by the Berkeley (CA) Society of Friends in their oral history series in 2021. 

Marc made many contributions to the literature of peace studies.  I would like to highlight one among his many books that made a huge impact on me, called Who Benefits from Global Violence and War: Uncovering a Destructive System (co-authored by Jennifer Achord Rountree.)  If we all understood these things as well as Marc did, we might be better able to bring an end to all war.

Marc was personally one of the finest people I have known. He was consistently kind and welcoming, inspirational, generous, and forgiving, when needed. Always a gracious host, he welcomed many friends and colleagues to his home. Marc was very dedicated to his wife Phyllis (who predeceased him in 2019) family, friends, colleagues, and to all the professional helpers who assisted Phyllis, and then Marc, and who  became part of his family. It seemed to me that Marc spiritually embraced everyone he came in contact with. 

Over the last several months, I had the honor to work with Marc on a paper that focused on our understanding of how clinicians in war torn countries find it necessary to adapt their practice, how working in war zones in the 21st century differs from all other disaster work, and what our colleagues in war need from those of us who are privileged to be in safer areas, with a focus on the war on Gaza. My experience working with him was that in spite of his deteriorating physical health, he continued to bring cognitive sharpness--even brilliance--thoughtfulness, kindness, empathy, and care to his work. He was well able to understand and to explain challenging ideas, and was well-versed in a variety of psychological theories, approaches, and dilemmas.

Dr. Pilisuk lived an extraordinary life. He inspired us all to follow our own paths to meaningful lives.