John E. L. Peck

John Edward Lancelot Peck (14 August 1918 – 6 November 2013) was the first permanent Head of Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia (UBC). which specified, supports, and maintains the languages ALGOL 60 and 68.

After his time as department head, he continued to teach at UBC, circa 1978–1979. He was seen arriving at the computer centre's terminal room early morning each weekend on his old-fashioned solid bicycle, beating many graduate students who headed to the terminal room to use the Amdahl mainframe computer in less crowded morning hours. He arrived around 9:00 o'clock, weather permitting. Presumably he was working on an ALGOL 68 compiler system. That a professor of his status was sitting and typing at the terminal at each weekend gave some unspoken lessons to the future researchers.