In Memoriam

Donald J. Cohen, M.D. ’66, director of the Yale Child Study Center and Sterling Professor of Child Psychiatry, Pediatrics and Psychology, died October 2 after a year-long illness. He was 61. Cohen graduated from the School of Medicine in 1966, joined the Yale faculty in 1972, and in 1983 became director of the Yale Child Study Center. Under his leadership the Child Study Center became internationally recognized for its multidisciplinary programs of clinical and basic research, professional education, clinical services and advocacy for children and families. Cohen’s clinical and research activities focused on developmental psychopathology of the serious neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood, including autism, pervasive developmental disorders and tic disorders such as Tourette’s syndrome. His leadership in the study of the impact of violence on children and families created a worldwide network of collaborators. Cohen published more than 400 articles, chapters and books. He served as president of the International Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Allied Professions, chair of the publications committee and vice president of the Board of Governors of Yale University Press, co-chair of the Child Health and Development Institute, international president of the Telefon Azzuro Foundation in Italy and chair of the international advisory committee of the Schneider Children’s Hospital of Israel. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a training and supervising psychoanalyst at the Western New England Institute of Psychoanalysis. He received numerous awards, including an honorary degree in 1997 from Bar-Ilan University in Israel for his commitment to child psychiatry and the mentorship of young professionals in Israel, a Special Presidential Commendation from the American Psychiatric Association and a Lifetime of Research in Autism Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.

Kenneth Colby, M.D. ’43, a psychiatrist and a pioneer in artificial intelligence and computerized therapy, died on April 20 at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 81. In the early 1970s, Colby led a team that developed the software program Parry, which was designed to imitate the conversation of a paranoid schizophrenic. In test interviews, psychiatrists were unable to distinguish Parry’s responses from those of real paranoiacs. Parry was the only program to pass the “Turing test,” meaning that it could successfully impersonate a person in a typed conversation. In 1989, Colby and his son, Peter, founded Malibu Artifactual Intelligence Works to develop therapeutic software. One program they designed was called “Overcoming Depression,” and it combined a text-based tutorial, cognitive therapy techniques and a free-association component. The program was used by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Navy and Kaiser Permanente, among others, to reach people with mental illness who do not seek professional help. Colby was born in Waterbury, Conn., and graduated from both Yale College and the School of Medicine. He practiced psychiatry for 20 years, and then was a professor of computer science at Stanford University, where he created Parry at the university’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He moved to ucla in 1974 to work in the psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences departments. He retired from academia in 1989, when he started Malibu Artifactual Intelligence Works. He published 10 books and over 100 articles in the fields of psychotherapy and artificial intelligence. He also wrote two books about chess and was a highly rated player.

Donald W. Dewald, M.D., HS ’41, died January 13 at MedCentral/Mansfield Hospital in Ohio. He was 86. Dewald trained as an intern and resident at Yale School of Medicine after graduating from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, where he received the Hoover Scholarship as valedictorian. He was a teaching fellow at Case, and then enlisted in the Army during World War II. He attained the rank of major and was chief of the medical service at Pasadena Regional Hospital in California. Starting in 1946, he practiced medicine in Mansfield, 21 of those years with his son. Dewald was on staff at MedCentral/Mansfield and Peoples Hospitals and was a past president of the Richland County Medical Society.

Lawrence A. Downs, M.D. ’64, a psychiatrist and one-time Yale basketball star, died on May 20 at his home in New London, N.H., after a long illness. He was 65. Born in Indianapolis and raised in White Plains, N.Y., Downs later spent time as an English-speaking Union Fellow at Brighton College in Sussex, England. He came to Yale with the Class of 1959 and made the All-Ivy Basketball Team. He went on to the School of Medicine and then a residency in psychiatry at New York Hospital. He joined the faculty of Cornell Medical College and also served as the liaison psychiatrist at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. At the same time he maintained a private practice in both New York City and New London, N.H., until his retirement in 2000.

Paula Yaney Gambill, M.P.H. ’77, a recruiter and consultant to the health care industry, died in April 2000 after a prolonged illness. After receiving her M.P.H. in 1977, she worked from 1981 to 1983 in the health and medical division of Booz, Allen & Hamilton, and then was a special assistant to the managing director of APM Inc. In 1987, she started work at Empire Blue Cross and Blue Shield and advanced from a program evaluation and development specialist to a manager of professional services utilization review. In 1993, she rejoined APM Inc. as a manager of senior recruiting.

Robert I. Hinkley, M.D. ’44, a general practitioner in Groveton, N.H., died on April 13 at the Morrison Nursing Home after a brief illness. He was 81. Born in Lancaster, N.H., Hinkley graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine and then received his M.D. from Yale. He did an internship at Worcester City Hospital in Massachusetts from 1944 to 1945 and then served two years in the Army as a post surgeon at the Ogden Ordnance Depot in Utah. He attained the rank of captain. On returning from the military, he settled in Groveton and remained there for the rest of his life. He started a general practice in 1947 and was on the staff of Weeks Hospital until his retirement in 1984. He developed the first cardiac care unit at Weeks. He was also president of the staff for two years and was on the hospital’s Board of Trustees. Hinkley was widely involved in local health care and government. He was a member of the New Hampshire Medical Society and served two years as president of the Coos County Medical Society. He was also elected a charter fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians in 1975. He was appointed to the New Hampshire Milk Sanitation Board by the governor. For many years, he was the Groveton and Stark health officer, and he also served on the Groveton school board for nine years. He was a trustee of the York Educational Foundation and director and president of the Groveton Foundation. Additionally, he was a senior master in duplicate bridge and shot golf rounds in the 70s in each of seven decades.

R. Leonard Kemler, M.D. ’43, a clinical professor of surgery at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a distinguished thoracic surgeon, died on May 20 in Boston from leukemia. He was 82. Kemler was born in Hartford, Conn., where he would return to practice for the majority of his professional life. He received a B.A. and an M.D. from Yale, and then did his internship and residency at the Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, where he trained under Evarts Graham. He served in the Navy in World War II as a lieutenant in Shanghai, China. He was also a ship’s surgeon aboard the USS Estes. He returned to Hartford to start a private practice in cardiovascular thoracic surgery in 1950, and was the founding president of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Associates P.C. He joined the faculty of the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and also became a professor of biology and a member of the Pre-Med Advisory Committee at the University of Hartford. He was a staff member at Cedarcrest Hospital, past director of cardiovascular thoracic surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, senior attending thoracic surgeon and director of cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at New Britain General Hospital, and a member of the Department of Surgery at Hartford Hospital. He received the Chairman’s Award of the Yale Alumni Fund, as well as the Silver Bowl Award and the Distinguished Alumni Service Award of the Yale University School of Medicine Alumni Fund Association.

Anita G. Pepper, M.P.H. ’60, Ph.D. ’72, a professor emerita at St. Louis University and an advocate for improving public health by bettering the services available to all people in society, died on April 7 of cancer at her home in Montague, Mass. She was 73. A native of New York, Pepper graduated from Smith College and the New York School of Social Work. She worked as a caseworker for the Jewish Family and Children’s Agency in Chicago and as a psychiatric social worker at the Bronx Municipal Hospital/Albert Einstein School of Medicine. She completed her M.P.H. at Yale in 1960. She joined the EPH faculty and became the special assistant to the dean of the School of Nursing. She helped prepare the school’s prospectus and gained her Ph.D. in 1972. After leaving Yale, she headed a new social work and health service training program at Washington University. In 1976, she became a professor of epidemiology at St. Louis University’s school of nursing. According to a former student, she was a strong advocate for improving health care services to the poor of St. Louis, as well as for maternal-child health. She and her husband, Max Pepper, M.P.H. ’59, helped to form the organization Health Care Is a Human Right. She retired from St. Louis University in 1989 and moved to Montague, Mass., but she continued to lecture at universities and hospitals. She held a clinical professorship at Tufts University School of Medicine and an adjunct position at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

David H. Riege, M.D. ’46, a pediatrician, died on October 11, 2000, at Lawrence and Memorial Hospital in New London, Conn. He was 80. Riege was born in Springfield, Mass., and raised in Longmeadow, Mass. He graduated from Wesleyan University and Yale School of Medicine. He was on the staff of Hartford Hospital from 1952 until 1984. He practiced pediatrics in West Hartford, Conn., where he also lived and raised his family, retiring in 1984.

Jesse G. Rubin, M.D. ’57, a clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University and a co-founder of a large chain of psychiatric hospitals, died May 25 of prostate cancer at his home in Washington, D.C. He was 68. Rubin and a group of other psychiatrists founded Psychiatric Institutes of America, a corporation that at one time oversaw 1,000 hospital beds in 10 states. He acted as medical director for the company from 1970 to 1973 and 1978 to 1983. He also helped to establish a nonprofit institution, the Psychiatric Institute Foundation, which supported privately run community services, including a halfway house and a drug treatment center. Rubin graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Marshall College and received his M.D. from Yale. He interned in Boston and then returned to Yale for a residency in psychiatry from 1958 to 1961. He served two years as a captain and staff psychiatrist in the U.S. Air Force. He then moved to Washington, joining the faculty at George Washington University as an assistant professor and working his way up to full clinical professor by 1977. He maintained a private practice and was a consultant to National Medical Enterprises after his involvement with Psychiatric Institutes of America. His research focused on forensic psychiatry and the relationships between law enforcement organizations and communities. He published The Police and the Community in 1972 and edited Readings in Law and Psychiatry.

John C. Wong, M.D. ’81, an orthopaedic and hand surgeon, died on November 6, 2000, in San Francisco. He was 44. Wong had practiced as an orthopaedic and hand surgeon since 1987. He was a native of Hong Kong and was on the board of trustees of the Chinese Community Health Care Association.

Joseph F. Zigarelli, M.D. ’40, a well-known neuropsychiatrist and Bronze Star Medal winner, died April 2 at Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach, Fla. He was 85. Zigarelli graduated from Cornell University, then received his M.D. from Yale in 1940. He maintained a private practice in neuropsychiatry for over 50 years in Paterson and Morristown, N.J. He was chief of children’s psychiatry at the state hospital of New Jersey at Greystone Park, and he was also on the staffs of Paterson General Hospital, Morristown Memorial Hospital and Columbia Presbyterian Hospital. His research and surgical techniques were directed toward finding alternatives to lobotomy, and were considered groundbreaking in their time. He served in World War II and received the Bronze Star Medal for his heroic medical treatment of the citizens of Naples, Italy.

Send obituary notices to Claire M. Bessinger, Yale Medicine Publications, 1 Church Street, Suite 300, New Haven, CT 06510, or via e-mail to claire.bessinger@yale.edu