Peter Homans, Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Religious Studies at the University of Chicago, died May 30, 2009.
He was born in New York City and earned degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary (B.D.) and University of Chicago Divinity School (M.A. & Ph.D.). His work emphasized psychoanalysis and is expressed in three books:
His final book is an edited volume, Symbolic Loss: The Ambiguity of Mourning and Memory at Century's End.
Homans was known for his teaching as well as for his scholarship. He received a warm tribute from his colleagues at the University of Chicago, where the Dean of the Divinity school described him as meticulous with details, but never forgetting the larger questions. Homans taught at the University of Chicago for 36 years.