Vickie Marie Peck of Placitas, New Mexico, left this world on September 28th 2024. Vickie was a shining star from the day she was born. A wild child of the desert, she entered this earth on Nov. 20th 1960 in Wickenburg AZ. Vickie was always full of curiosity and adventure. She could be found riding her pony, "Shorty," through the desert with her best friend and sister Barbara. Her love for nature was evident as a child as she would spend most of her time outdoors with her mother and father, Bill and Donna, and Barbara. She learned of hard work as she helped her family in their well drilling business, and she learned of science from her father's work in geology, mining, and metallurgy.
Vickie moved to Boulder, Utah in 1973 where she made many friends and was popular as a cheerleader. Upon graduating high school, she went to Dixie College in 1979 in St. George Utah. Her curiosity with living systems led her to study biology. Her education would expand to the University of Utah and Utah State University, eventually graduating from University of Arizona in May 1992 with a doctoral degree in Molecular Biology.
Vickie had a brilliant mind and a caring heart. She used her teaching and research to improve the lives of others. She dedicated herself to years of teaching and research first at the University of New Mexico and then at Sandia National Laboratories. Vickie was a global thinker and used her understanding of science to improve quality of life for humanity and the health of the ecosystem. She participated in many charitable groups, giving of her time and knowledge. She published many academic research papers, and co-authored a book on the congruence of modern science and indigenous Mexican traditional medicine (The Aztec Calendar, Nitrogen and Life, co-author Tzenwaxolokwauhtli Tzatzoehetzin, 2019).
Vickie married the love of her life, Reid Bandeen, on October 5th 1989 in a desert ceremony befitting two adventurous souls. Vickie and Reid would combine their love of science and art for improving the world around them for the next 35 years. They enjoyed the challenges and thrills of paragliding, rock climbing, mountaineering, ocean sailing, skiing, kayaking, river rafting, backpacking and mountain trekking. They worked with family and friends to build wilderness homes in both Arizona and New Mexico. In the early 2000's, Vickie led immersive experience adventure tours for the Pachamama Alliance celebrating indigenous cultures in the Andean highlands and Amazon rain forest in Ecuador, after a two-month tour of duty teaching English to indigenous tribes people deep in the jungles of the upper Amazon Basin. Vickie loved horseback riding her entire life, enjoying back country rides in all of the four corners states, and Wyoming. Even while suffering from Alzheimer's disease in her later years, she enjoyed both arena and back country riding with Tamaya Horse Rehab on the Santa Ana Pueblo in New Mexico.
Vickie leaves behind her loving husband, Reid Bandeen, Sister Barbara Button (Taylor Button), and brother in-law Robert Bandeen and his family; her nieces and nephews Jodie Marie Contreras, Brandee Walker, Janell Shurtliff, Malinda Sanders, Arnold Button, Nathan Button and many great grandnieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her parents William Peck and Donna (Davis) Peck.
Vickie was well loved by her large personal and professional communities in Utah, Arizona and New Mexico; her Mexican traditional communities throughout the U.S. and Mexico; and her Pachamama Alliance communities in San Francisco, Ecuador, and Australia. She will be warmly remembered by all of us who knew her brilliance, bravery, grit, adventurousness, generosity, and her radiant smile. In lieu flowers, commemorative donations in Vickie's name can be made to the Pachamama Alliance in San Francisco and Tamaya Horse Rehab in Bernalillo, NM.
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