Peter Dunning Ashlock was born in San Francisco, California on August 22, 1929. Ashlock developed an interest in insects at an early age. He received his Bachelor's degree in entomology from the University of California (Berkeley) in 1952 and served as an ecological entomologist in the U.S. Army for the next two years. Ashlock received his Master's degree in entomology from the University of Connecticut in 1956. He married Virginia "Jinny" Harris on June 25, 1956. The Ashlocks had two children, Daniel Abram, born December 14, 1961 and Joseph Warren, born December 27, 1965. Ashlock began doctoral work in 1956 and accepted a position at the Entomology Research Division of the United States Department of Agriculture at the National Museum of Natural History. Ashlock continued his entomological research at the University of Maryland in 1958 and in 1960 once again returned to Berkeley. He participated in the Galapagos International Scientific Project to the Galapagos, Ecuador and the Cocos Island in 1964. Ashlock worked at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Hawaii in 1964 and in 1966 received his Ph.D. from Berkeley. Ashlock taught for the 1967-1968 academic year at the University of Connecticut and finally moved to the University of Kansas in 1968 where he was made full professor in 1981. He died on January 26, 1989.
Peter Ashlock's main areas of study included identification, taxonomy, and systematics of insects. He was specifically interested in the Lygaeidae and the genus Geocoris. In his career, Ashlock traveled to many regions of the world for research purposes, including Hawaii, Laos, Thailand, Japan, Panama, Tahiti, and the Galapagos Islands. Ashlock was a member of the Pacific Coast Entomological Society, Entomological Society of America, Society of Systematic Zoology, and Sigma Xi, among many other organizations. He was an editor for the Kansas Entomological Society and acting editor for Pacific Insects . Ashlock is most well known for his discovery and understanding of what has come to be known as the cladistic approach to systematics. Ashlock served as the Director/Chief Curator of the Snow Entomological Museum at the University of Kansas from 1968-1988. His collection of Lygaeidae are housed in the Snow Entomological Museum at KU. For a more complete biography and bibliography, please see stable url http://www.jstor.org/stable/25009821 published by the New York Entomological Society.
From the guide to the Personal Papers of Peter D. Ashlock, 1950-1989, (University of Kansas Kenneth Spencer Research Library University Archives)
