Emmy Peck

Emmy Peck, age 84, of Dearborn Heights, passed away Friday, December 20, 2024.
Emmy was born May 15, 1940, in Sopron Hungary. She was 16 years old when the 1956 Hungarian Revolution broke out and the family had to flee the country because her stepfather was Freedom Fighter. After arrival in the United States she was educated at Allen Park High School, Henry Ford Junior College and Wayne State University Medical School. She then joined the faculty at WSU Medical School and later received her American Citizenship.
Emmy married Raymond Peck in August of 1964 and took time off to raise a family raising two children, Raymond and Laura.
Emmy then rejoined the faculty and taught medical students as a Professor at Wayne State School of Medicine for 32 years. She donated this effort for free to support the medical school and to thank America for taking their family in when they were refugees from the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.
Emmy's love of books led her to become the founding president of the Dearborn Heights Friends of the Libraries. She led the effort to get a millage passed to finance the building of two new libraries and remained the president of the Friends supporting the libraries for the next 40 years.
When cable TV arrived in southeastern Michigan, she formed a TV production team to produce programs for the newly created Public Access Cable TV channel. The program presented local entertainment talent (some now internationally famous) and museum tours. The program's popularity grew to reach much of metropolitan Detroit spanning from Novi on the west, the Grosse Points to the east, and from Farmington Hills down to Brownstown just north of Monroe. She was Director, Host, Video Editor and Producer of the show.
Emmy loved art and got very involved in presenting art programs on her cable TV show. Unlike the usual "talking heads' shows in vogue at the time, these shows were tours of the galleries and special exhibits where the curators explained what was noteworthy about the art as you were looking at it. More than 350 shows were produced that included many venues like the Detroit Institute of Arts, The Detroit Science Center, The Henry Ford Museum, Greenfield Village, The Freer House, The Toledo Art Museum, The University of Michigan Museum of Art, The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and many, many others. She also got very active in several auxiliaries at the DIA and became president of one of them.
Emmy is survived by her husband of 60 years, Raymond E. Peck; son, Raymond E. Peck, III (Natalia Ilyasova); daughter, Laura E. Eklov (Brian); grandchildren, Raymond E. Peck, IV, Julia Eklov, Adam Eklov, Stanislov Ilyasov, Daniel Sabian, Edwin Kim and Esther Kim; sister, Eva Stubits-Gallagher (Cliffton) and their daughter, Kati Stubits-Gallagher; sister-in-law, Carol Peck Barnhart (Michael) and their children, Michal and Sara Barnhart; and brother-in-law, Ralph E. Peck (Elizabeth Furchi) and their daughters, Rachel, Katy and Alex.
Emmy's family will receive friends on Thursday, January 2, 2-8 pm, at the funeral home.
A funeral mass will be celebrated on Friday, January 3, 11 am, at Holy Cross Hungarian Catholic Church, 8423 South St., Detroit.
Entombment will take place at Glen Eden Memorial Park in Livonia
Memorial tributes may be directed to the Friends of the Dearborn Heights Library, 24590 George St., Dearborn Heights, MI 48127.