Following this, from 1938 to 1939, he furthered his education by enrolling in a soil mechanics course at Harvard University, where he also served as a laboratory assistant to Arthur Casagrande.
[3] Peck also spent some time as an engineer in Marion, Ohio with Holabird & Root, before assuming the position of Assistant Research Professor at the University of Illinois in 1942.
The pair's collaboration deepened when Terzaghi was named a visiting research professor in the Department of Civil Engineering in April 1945.
[3] In 1953, along with Walter Hanson and Thomas Thornburn, Peck published Foundation Engineering, a textbook covering the practical application of soil mechanics and foundation engineering techniques, which included short biographies of many of the most pivotal figures and key collaborators of Peck's in soil mechanics up to that time, such as Terzaghi, Casagrande, and Alec Skempton.
[8] Peck retired from full-time teaching in 1974, becoming Professor Emeritus, continuing to deliver lectures on a number of occasions each year.
[3] Peck settled with his family in Albuquerque, New Mexico and continued to work until 2006 as a highly respected and influential consulting engineer.
[13] Peck received numerous awards during his career, including The Norman Medal of the American Society of Civil Engineers for his paper, Earth-pressure measurements in open cuts, Chicago Subway in 1944.
However, political opposition with Pauling meant that then-president Richard Nixon refused to present the award in person, and Peck received it one year later from Gerald Ford.