Aviation pioneer. Born in Anstead, West Virginia and raised in Hinton, he began flying only seven years after the Wright Brothers' first flight. With a background in automobiles and racing, his leap to flying was facilitated by the similarity between the engines, and by the fact that his fiancee's cousin was Rexford Smith, a Washington patent attorney who headed the Rex-Smith Aeroplane Company. One of only three officers chosen by the War Department to learn to fly under Glenn H. Curtiss, he was a First Lieutenant; his title of "Colonel" was an honorific conferred by a governor. In a time of rapid aviation progress, he was first by many measures. Learning to fly in less than two weeks, he was the first pilot to transport U.S. mail officially and became a regular, making runs from New York City to several Long Island towns. When the executive committee of the Aero Club of America began issuing pilot licenses, he qualified July 29-30, 1911, and was granted license #57. When the first U.S. military aviation school opened at College Park, Maryland in 1911, Peck was an instructor. The first man to fly over the nation's capitol, on August 5, 1911, he flew over the Capitol Building, down Pennsylvania Avenue, and circled the Washington Monument, thrilling huge crowds and covering 24 miles in 25 minutes, setting a speed record. He was best known for his American duration record attained two months after his wife died, on May 24, 1912, partially during a blinding wind and rain storm, remaining in the air 4 hours, 33 minutes and 15 seconds at Long Island. Peck still held that record when he met his end preparing for the Second Chicago International Air Meet. On the eve of the meet, at Cicero Field under posted cautions and gusty wind conditions, his Columbia biplane was at 1000 feet when he executed a spiral descent. His plane's nose and left wing put him into too deep an angle, and unable to pull out of the steep dive, he came down straight into the field at 100 miles per hour, and died several hours later. It is thought the rear-mounted "pusher" engine came loose and ripped through the plane as well, hitting him from behind. He passed away a few hours later at St. Anthony de Padua Hospital at 19th and Marshall Boulevard on either the 11th or 12th of September 1912, depending on source consulted - DC deaths and burials, DC deaths, and Illinois, Cook County Deaths all give it as the 12th, while his tombstone states the 11th. His death was one of over 45 flight-related fatalities that year, and one of seven air deaths that month. He passed away four months after Wilbur Wright, and his funeral itself made the history books as the first funeral procession in Washington, DC composed entirely of cars.