Marc Pilisuk

Pilisuk—Marc Pilisuk, 90, on August 20, 2024, in Berkeley, Calif. Marc was born on January 19, 1934, in the Bronx, N.Y. He grew up in Brooklyn, attending Stuyvesant High School. Born of Depression era values, Marc was often parsimonious with himself but generous with others. He remembered his mother’s experience during his childhood of giving up her seat near the front of a bus to a pregnant Black woman, while the driver looked askance but said nothing.

While studying psychology at Queens College, he met Phyllis Kamen. They married in 1956, beginning a marriage of 62 years. Marc earned a doctorate in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1961, where he was one of the organizers of the first teach-ins against the Vietnam War, working alongside student activist Tom Hayden, with whom Marc had a lifelong friendship.

After their first child, Tammy, was born, the family moved to Lafayette, Ind., where their son, Jeffrey, was born. Marc was a professor at Purdue University. While there, he wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times opposing the Vietnam War. This displeased a department benefactor and, after only a year, his teaching contract was not renewed.

In 1967, Marc received an offer to teach at a community mental health program at the University of California, Berkeley. The family relocated to Berkeley during the height of antiwar protests on campus. Marc’s classes were often held at an off-campus cafe, where students organized peaceful ways to demonstrate.

Phyllis was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis around that time. She began attending Berkeley Meeting in 1968, sometimes with Marc. In more recent years, Marc took an active role, engaging with the meeting’s Social and Environmental Action Committee on peace and social justice issues. He regularly participated in meetings for worship via Zoom while convalescing at home during his later years.

Marc continued to be an outspoken proponent of nonviolent conflict resolution, and authored several books, including: Who Benefits from Global Violence and War, The Hidden Structure of Violence, The Healing Web, The Triple Revolution: Emerging Social Problems in Depth, and an edited compendium of Peace Movements Worldwide. He also authored or coauthored more than 100 academic journal articles.

After ten years at UC Berkeley, Marc transferred to UC Davis and served as chair of the Applied Behavioral Sciences Department for 15 years. As Phyllis’s multiple sclerosis continued to worsen, Marc retired from UC Davis to be of more assistance to her. He accepted a position teaching remotely at Saybrook University in San Francisco (now in Pasadena).

Marc was a professor emeritus at the University of California. He received numerous professional awards, including five lifetime achievement awards, the most recent from the American Psychological Association’s Division of Humanistic Psychology on March 30, 2024.

Marc was a loving husband, caring for Phyllis at home, with a small village of caregivers through her final years. Phyllis died in February 2019.

Marc was a gentle soul, with a tenacious spirit, always striving to resolve conflicts peacefully. His work is admired by generations of students and colleagues, friends and family, and others.

Marc loved a good (or not-so-good) joke. Sharing humor with friends, family, his doctors, and even trying his hand at stand-up comedy with some of his senior groups—a late-life joy. As his health worsened, he, like Phyllis, remained in his home with caregivers.

Marc was predeceased by his wife, Phyllis Pilisuck.

He is survived by two children, Tammy (Mark) and Jeffrey (Philippa); two grandchildren; one sister-in-law, Mimi; four nieces and one nephew.