Lewis Petrinovich

Lewis F. Petrinovich
June 12, 1930 - July 28, 2021
Lewis Franklin Petrinovich passed away July 28 at his home in Berkeley. He was 91.

Born in Wallace, Idaho, he was the only child of Croatian immigrant John F. Petrinovich, a hard rock miner and later furniture store owner, and Ollie Steward Petrinovich, a descendant of Scottish immigrants.

His youth was spent wrangling horses, playing football, boxing, and learning to play the saxophone. He entered the University of Idaho, graduating in 1952. While he continued his education, he helped support his family with pickup nighttime jazz gigs playing the string bass and baritone saxophone.

A decade later, in 1962, he received the Ph.D. in psychology from UC Berkeley and began his academic career as an assistant professor at San Francisco State College (now University). Moving to the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he advanced from associate professor to professor.

In 1968, he joined the faculty of the University of California Riverside, where he spent most of this academic career as professor and chair of the Department of Psychology. He retired from UC Riverside as professor emeritus in 1991.

His interest in music continued throughout his life. Until recently, he played baritone sax in the Alameda-based Bob Enos Legacy Big Band, a jazz group who entertained at the Alameda restaurants Rooster's Roadhouse and Jim's on the Course. He also served on the board of directors of Friends of Big Band Jazz from 2001 to 2007.

His standing as a gourmet was well known and appreciated among his friends. Donning his chef's jacket embroidered "Chez Lew," he entertained with sumptuous meals at holidays and birthdays.

His academic research, much of it in evolutionary psychology, took in topics as varied as left-handedness, the evolutionary origins of cannibalism, elephant seal vocalizations, and evolutionary ornithology, especially song development and territory establishment in the white-crowned sparrow.


He is the single author of four books, including a trilogy about the morality of various actions that affect the birth, life, and death of organisms: Human Evolution, Reproduction, and Morality; Living and Dying Well; and Darwinian Dominion: Animal Welfare and Human Interests. The Cannibal Within, an evolutionary account of the propensity of humans, in extreme circumstances, to eat other humans, was published in 2000 by Aldine de Gruyter. He is the co-author of several other books and numerous articles in academic journals focusing on comparative and physiological psychology, behavioral biology, and animal behavior.

He was a fellow of the American Psychological Association and a member of the American Psychological Society and the California Academy of Sciences.

He is survived by his partner Jane Stecher, sons Mark of San Francisco and Karl, daughters Kathy, Denise, and Dawn of Santa Fe, N.M., and grandchildren Hazel, Natalia, John, Morgan, and Jasmine.