The tale of a person and a peptide: Wylie W. Vale Jr. and the role of corticotropin-releasing factor in the stress response

•Biographical data and personal point of views of Wylie Vale's life.•Scientific relevant finds of Wylie Vale's life.•Vale's scientific career on pursue of the elucidation of CRF stress response.

The studies reviewed in this article certainly do not constitute the entire body of research conducted by Wylie Vale's group and his collaborators, they might constitute turning points in CRF research. In addition, the studies reviewed here show that, over the course of 31 years (from 1981 to 2012), Wylie tirelessly pursued the answers to fundamental questions regarding CRF. He was a man whose drive never seemed to falter.