Peter G. Tripodes, long time resident of Venice, California, passed away on June 29, 2018 at the age of 89. He passed at his home, surrounded by his family.

Peter was born in Cleveland, Ohio to Gust and Sophia Tripodes. He left Cleveland with his family at the end of August 1946 to come to southern California, arriving with his family in Monterey Park, California on September 6, 1946.

He followed the academic path, graduating from UCLA in 1956 with a Bachelors Degree in philosophy and a minor in psychology. He later earned a Masters Degree in philosophy in 1963, and a Ph.D. in mathematics in 1968, also from UCLA. He met his wife, Paula, when they were both students at UCLA. He was working at the UCLA library and she was checking out a book. They got married on September 7, 1963.

Peter was known for his work in language-based psychological profiling, an emerging field in the 1970s. He began his career as a consultant for the Los Angeles Suicide Prevention Center at the USC School of Medicine, where he analyzed text from normal and psychiatric populations. He went on to work for the UCLA Center for Computer-Based Behavioral Studies on automatic content analysis, developing computer-aided profiling tools, before joining the Rand Corporation in 1977. At Rand, Peter analyzed communicated threats to nuclear reactor facilities, and documents issuing from various domestic and foreign terrorist groups. He continued consulting for a variety of government clients, including the CIA, FBI, Secret Service, the Department of Energy, and the Center for Disease Control. As part of a team led by FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt, Peter is credited with helping to identify Ted Kaczynski as the Unabomber in 1996 by comparing the linguistic patterns of the "Unabomber Manifesto" to materials written by Ted Kaczynski. He also analyzed the anthrax letter sent to NBC anchor Tom Brokaw in 2001, providing a psychological profile and threat assessment.

For those interested, you may read some of his profiling and research papers, or watch a video of his presentation on Human and Machine Understanding of Natural Language, please visit www.petergtripodes.com .

In addition to his work as a consultant, Peter was a professor of mathematics and philosophy. He taught at Mount Saint Mary's College from 1970 to 1977, before joining the mathematics department at L.A. City College, where he taught for over 20 years.

Peter enjoyed creative writing and, in 2017, published Festival in Therma , a collection of short stories. He painted as a young man and continued to take life drawing classes into his eighties. He loved being with his family, including Sunday dinners with his children and grandchildren.

In addition to his gentle nature and sense of humor, Peter will be remembered as a free spirit who knew his own mind and was faithful to his own beliefs and perspectives. He was full of gratitude and embraced life in its entirety.

He is survived by his wife Paula Tripodes, and children Sophia T. Gomez (Patrick) and Lucia Tripodes (David Jacobson), grandchildren Olivia Gomez and Isabelle Gomez, and brother Steven Tripodes, and many other cousins, nieces, nephews, and friends. He is preceded in death by his parents, Gust and Sophia Tripodes and his sister, Vivian Pastis.

One of his favorite quotes was "Change is the essence of life. Surrender what you are for what you could become." – Reinhold Niebuhr

The funeral will be at 11:00 am on Monday, July 9, 2018 at Saint Anthony Greek Orthodox Church, 778 S. Rosemead Blvd., Pasadena, CA 91107. Makaria (mercy meal) directly following the funeral service at the church hall. Interment at San Gabriel Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to Saint Anthony Greek Orthodox Church building fund.

Arrangements under the direction of Chapman Funeral Homes - Terry & Mary Harmon, Funeral Directors. Toll free (855) 628-0447.

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Obituary notice for Chapman Funeral Homes. Please visit www.chapmanfuneraldirectors.com .

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