Dr. Peter Emmet Grimes

Dr. Peter Emmet Grimes, a widely respected sociologist with an unique approach to world systems analysis, died from lung cancer on August 24, 2021. He was born in Lansing, MI, on March 25th, 1953, and was the youngest of four children. Dr. Grimes grew up in East Lansing, Michigan, where his parents, Dr. Alan P. Grimes, a political theorist, and Dr. Margaret W. Grimes, a Dante scholar, were both professors at Michigan State University.

He attended the University of Michigan as an undergraduate, after which he went on to obtain a Master of Arts degree. His thesis was titled: "Poverty, Exploitation, and Population Growth: Marxist and Malthusian Views on the Political Economy of Childbearing in the Third World".

Dr. Grimes received his second MA and a Ph.D. in sociology at Johns Hopkins University under the direction of Dr. Christopher Chase-Dunn, an international expert on world systems analysis. His doctoral thesis was titled: "Economic Cycles and International Mobility in the World System: 1790 – 1990". He and Dr. Chase-Dunn collaborated on a seminal, frequently cited, paper titled "World Systems Analysis" in 1995, and Dr. Chase-Dunn remained a life-long mentor, colleague and friend.

Subsequently, Dr. Grimes obtained research funding from the National Science Foundation, the World Bank, the American Psychiatric Association and others, and collaborated on additional papers with colleagues at various institutions, further developing his theories (and his data sets) regarding how global cycles of all kinds intersect and influence each other. At the time of his death, he was working on a book titled The Twilight of our Times: The Origins and Future of Intelligence on our Planet (to be published posthumously). In this book he illustrates how, by tying together themes of the natural world (including physics and astronomy), along with economic cycles, and patterns of dominance in human behavior and among societies, it is possible to anticipate what seemed to him inevitable trends toward devolution and growing injustice in the context of unchecked capitalism and climate change.

While living in Baltimore, he taught at several local colleges. After returning to East Lansing, he was hired by Central Michigan University where he taught sociology for several years before retiring. He was a generous teacher who willingly spent hours on the phone with students who were either excited by, or sometimes struggling with, the heady concepts to which he was introducing them.

Survivors include his sister, Katherine Grimes, his sister-in-law, Ruby Grimes; his cousins Ralph (and Marie) Grimes and Willard (and Carolyn) Grimes; as well as three nieces, three nephews, two great-nieces, two great-nephews, and extended family members, all of whom will miss him dearly. Additionally, Dr. Grimes was beloved by a broad and loyal circle of friends, neighbors, colleagues and community members. A recurring theme among friends and family was the pleasure they experienced in having "great conversations with Peter". Despite his bleak sense of the future as a professional, it was clear that Peter Grimes, as a person, likewise treasured those great conversations, and the people he had them with; and that both provided him with the joy and the energy to carry on his work and try to achieve his vision.

A private celebration of his life will be held in the spring of 2022.