M. Scott Peck, author and psychotherapist, was born on May 22, 1936 in New York City. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and was attending Middlebury College before being expelled for refusing to attend mandatory R.O.T.C. sessions. He transferred to Harvard, where he graduated in 1958, and then earned a M.D. in 1963 from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. He was a psychiatrist in the United States Army for nearly 10 years, was the director of the New Milford Hospital Mental Heath Clinic, and worked in a private psychiatric practice in Connecticut. In 1984, he helped establish the Foundation for Community Encouragement, whose mission is to promote and teach the principles… of Community. He is among the founding fathers of the self-help genre of books. The Road Less Traveled, Peck's best known book, was a New York Times bestseller for a decade. His works deal with helping people and bringing about a lasting peace for mankind. He is the recipient of the 1984 Kaleidoscope Award for Peacemaking, the 1994 Temple International Peace Prize, and the Learning, Faith and Freedom Medal from Georgetown University in 1996. He died on September 25, 2005 at the age of 69.