| Lloyd Whipple Peck |
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Lloyd W. "Hot Rod" Peck, 88, a retired photocopy technician, died Sept. 13 of congestive heart failure at his home in Alexandria.
Born in the District, Lloyd Whipple Peck dropped out of Eastern High School at 16 to help support his family during the Depression and
managed to catch on as a bouncer on an excursion steamer for black families. He was also a pool shark, having been taught the game by
his father, and once shared a table with Minnesota Fats.
During World War II, he served in the Army in Europe and acquired a second nickname, "Lucky," when he braved sniper fire in the Bavarian
town of Dorfen to cut down a Nazi flag. "I didn't know they were shooting at me," he later said, according to his family.
After the war, he returned to the Washington area and used the GI Bill to study watchmaking. After a brief stint as a clerk at the U.S. Capitol
power plant, he took a position with Photostat, later acquired by Itek.
As a technician, he worked on sophisticated photocopying equipment for such agency clients as the CIA, FBI, Treasury Department and
Justice Department.He retired from Itek in the early 1980s.
After moving from Arlington County to Alexandria in 1960, Mr. Peck helped establish still-active little league football and baseball programs
in the Bucknell neighborhood. He also coached and mentored a number of neighborhood boys over the years.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he served on the board of the Little Hunting Park swim club and was involved with landscaping and
facility improvement projects, including efforts to reduce erosion into Little Hunting Creek, a Potomac River tributary.
In the 1990s, he was a regular at the Hollin Hall Senior Center in Alexandria, where he helped a number of his fellow seniors sharpen their
pool-shooting prowess.
Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Margaret Hart Peck of Alexandria; seven children, Sherri Peck of Quantico, James Peck of Baltimore
and Patricia Bennett, Howard Peck, John Peck, Kevin Peck and Michael Peck, all of Alexandria; three sisters, Jean Hubbell of La Plata, Lois
Ann Martilla of Davidsonville and Lea Abato of Punta Gorda, Fla.; 10 grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
-- Joe Holley
Lloyd W. "Hot Rod" Peck, 88, a retired photocopy technician, died Sept. 13 of congestive heart failure at his home in Alexandria.
Born in the District, Lloyd Whipple Peck dropped out of Eastern High School at 16 to help support his family during the Depression and
managed to catch on as a bouncer on an excursion steamer for black families. He was also a pool shark, having been taught the game by
his father, and once shared a table with Minnesota Fats.
During World War II, he served in the Army in Europe and acquired a second nickname, "Lucky," when he braved sniper fire in the Bavarian
town of Dorfen to cut down a Nazi flag. "I didn't know they were shooting at me," he later said, according to his family.
After the war, he returned to the Washington area and used the GI Bill to study watchmaking. After a brief stint as a clerk at the U.S. Capitol
power plant, he took a position with Photostat, later acquired by Itek.
As a technician, he worked on sophisticated photocopying equipment for such agency clients as the CIA, FBI, Treasury Department and
Justice Department.He retired from Itek in the early 1980s.
After moving from Arlington County to Alexandria in 1960, Mr. Peck helped establish still-active little league football and baseball programs
in the Bucknell neighborhood. He also coached and mentored a number of neighborhood boys over the years.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he served on the board of the Little Hunting Park swim club and was involved with landscaping and
facility improvement projects, including efforts to reduce erosion into Little Hunting Creek, a Potomac River tributary.
In the 1990s, he was a regular at the Hollin Hall Senior Center in Alexandria, where he helped a number of his fellow seniors sharpen their
pool-shooting prowess.
Survivors include his wife of 59 years, Margaret Hart Peck of Alexandria; seven children, Sherri Peck of Quantico, James Peck of Baltimore
and Patricia Bennett, Howard Peck, John Peck, Kevin Peck and Michael Peck, all of Alexandria; three sisters, Jean Hubbell of La Plata, Lois
Ann Martilla of Davidsonville and Lea Abato of Punta Gorda, Fla.; 10 grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter.
-- Joe Holley