A Place to Call Home

Susan and Bob Peck’s (pictured) connection to the Wissahickon is deeply rooted—both figuratively and literally. Bob grew up in a home designed by his father, landscape architect Frederick Peck, in the Chestnut Hill section of Philadelphia. The area’s wooded trails, stone houses, and winding paths shaped his early years and instilled in him an appreciation for the interplay between nature and history.

Susan’s introduction to Chestnut Hill came later, but when she and Bob married, they consciously decided to build their life together here. “We knew this was where we wanted to be,” Susan said. Their commitment to conserving and preserving the neighborhood’s history and green spaces has only deepened over time. Through their work with the Chestnut Hill Conservancy and other community organizations, they have helped ensure that the elements that first shaped Bob’s childhood—and later became the foundation of their shared life—remain intact for future generations.

This year, the Chestnut Hill Conservancy is honoring the Pecks at its Spring Gala on Saturday, May 31, in Chestnut Hill, recognizing their decades-long dedication to the neighborhood’s past and future.

A Life of Service

With a professional background in public health, Susan has long understood how environments shape well-being, a perspective that has guided her civic engagement. “When you think about public health, you think about the importance of place—what makes a place livable and how green spaces affect everyone’s quality of life,” she said.

Susan’s dedication to community service has shaped Chestnut Hill’s public spaces and preservation efforts for nearly three decades. She first became involved with the Conservancy as a volunteer for the Great Houses Tours and other events before joining the board around 2016. One of her earliest projects was chairing a program on the contributions of Italian artisans to Chestnut Hill’s historic buildings, one of the Conservancy’s most successful programs. The event showcased the craftsmanship behind familiar landmarks, reinforcing the importance of recognizing and preserving the neighborhood’s built landscape. “I’ve always loved history and conservation,” she said. “It was a very natural fit for me.”

Beyond the Conservancy, Susan has played a key role in the Chestnut Hill Garden District Fund, shaping the neighborhood’s public green spaces. She has helped maintain and expand several pocket parks, including Cliff Park and the Peace Park on Germantown Avenue. Her involvement with the Morris Arboretum, where she has served on the board for over 20 years, reflects her deep connection to green spaces and their role in shaping a community. “I think about the trees all the time,” she said. “When you walk down any street in Chestnut Hill, you don’t even think about sun and shade because there are so many trees. It’s so beautiful.” Her work with the Arboretum and the Garden District Fund is guided by the belief that careful stewardship ensures a vibrant, sustainable landscape for future generations.

Her approach to leadership is both thoughtful and deliberate. “I try to listen and focus,” Susan said. “I want to make sure everybody understands the bigger picture because preservation isn’t just about saving what exists—it’s about making sure it continues to be relevant.” Raised in a civic-minded New England family, Susan learned early on that engagement and service were essential to community life. “I was taught to get involved and give back what you can,” she said.

With a keen ability to assess the community’s immediate and long-term needs, Susan has helped direct key conservation and public engagement efforts. Whether guiding the Conservancy’s programming, advocating for green spaces, or participating in other civic initiatives, she remains committed to ensuring that Chestnut Hill’s historic and natural character thrives for generations to come.

In addition to his global work, Bob has directly supported the Chestnut Hill Conservancy’s mission by contributing to its conservation and educational initiatives. He has been a guest speaker at several Conservancy events, including the 2023 Conservancy Gala, as well as a day-long symposium about his father’s legacy as a landscape architect, organized by the Chestnut Hill Historical Society in 2011, before the Society changed its name to the Conservancy.

For Bob, preservation is rooted in the way nature and people interact. His interdisciplinary approach connects environmental conservation with cultural history, making his work significant both locally and globally. Furthering his commitment to local conservation, Bob recently joined the board of the Whitemarsh Foundation, an organization dedicated to preserving open space, historic farmland, and cultural landscapes in the region. He also serves on Longwood Gardens and the Winterthur Museum boards, two institutions well known for their sensitive preservation and management of open space.

His commitment to the outdoors extends to several personal projects as well, including his efforts to gather acorns from Chestnut Hill’s oak trees and spread them into the larger world. “I’ve collected thousands of acorns from all over Chestnut Hill to enhance a reforestation project in the Poconos,” he explains. “There, climate change and disease have begun to alter tree populations. The more oaks we can introduce to that ecosystem, the better. They are essential for supporting biodiversity.” Bob’s reforestation efforts have been influenced by entomologist and conservationist Dr. Douglas Tallamy, whose research emphasizes the ecological importance of native trees like oaks in sustaining biodiversity. “In all of his books, Dr. Tallamy demonstrates how oak trees are the greatest supporters of insect diversity,” notes Bob. “This, in turn, supports bird life and the rest of the food chain.”

Bob’s passion for conservation extends far beyond trees. Over the years, he has worked on environmental and historical projects that span continents, from documenting nomadic life in Mongolia to retracing the journeys of such early explorers as William Bartram, John Muir, and Alexander von Humboldt. He has discovered three new species of frogs in the Amazon—one named after him, Eleutherodactylus pecki—and collaborated with some of the world’s leading conservationists and natural history educators, including the legendary BBC commentator Sir David Attenborough.

Bob met Sir David in the early 1980s when Attenborough visited the Academy of Natural Sciences. After a lecture at the museum, they took a walk through the Wissahickon, where their shared love of nature sparked a lasting friendship. “A few months later, he called me and said he was doing a film about John James Audubon,” Bob recalled. “He said, ‘You seem to know a lot about Audubon—could you help me?’” Since then, they have remained close friends, sharing meals, staying at each other’s houses, and exchanging handwritten letters regularly.

Bob’s experiences have taken him worldwide, from escaping headhunters in Ecuador to meeting with the Dalai Lama. In 2006, he represented the president of the United States and the U.S. State Department at Mongolia’s 800th birthday anniversary. Yet, despite these global adventures, he maintains that some of the most remarkable landscapes and histories can be found right at home. “You can find just as interesting things—maybe not as exotic, but just as interesting and just as important —by going into the Wissahickon,” he said. “Nature is a remarkable reservoir of extraordinary organisms and ecosystems, and just spending time in it, whether here or there or anywhere, is life enriching.”

Bob’s commitment to preservation is both vast in scale and deeply personal. Whether planting trees, chronicling history, or educating the public through lectures, articles, and books, his work is guided by the belief that conservation is not just about what we save but how we understand, engage with, and protect the world around us.

Susan and Bob continue to share the stories, buildings, and landscapes of the Wissahickon Valley—and are thinking about how to inspire the next generation to do the same. “Preserving this place isn’t just about saving old buildings or trees,” Bob said. “It’s about protecting a way of life, about making sure future generations can experience the same wonder and beauty we have had the privilege to know.”

Their three children grew up with an appreciation for nature, history, and the importance of giving back. Whether through conservation, writing, art, or advocacy, they carry those values forward. “We hope we’ve instilled that in them,” Susan said. “Not just the love of these places, but the understanding that you have to do something to protect them.”

To the Pecks, civic engagement is about participation, not perfection. “Do what you can,” Susan advises. “Volunteer for a clean-up day, get involved in a school project, support a local organization in whatever way is within your capacity.” Bob agrees: “Not everyone can dedicate their career to conservation, but just showing up—whether planting a tree, attending a meeting, or supporting preservation efforts near home or elsewhere—sustains the things we all value.”

Their steady commitment is a reminder that meaningful contributions come not from grand gestures but from consistent care over time.