Tributes

Often called the “mother of family therapy,” Virginia Satir (1916-1988) started her professional life as an educator after graduating from the Milwaukee State Teachers College (now the University of Wisconsin) in 1936. While working as a public school teacher, Virginia developed an interest in meeting and working with her students’ parents – recognizing early on that engaging the support of parents not only yielded more successful outcomes for her students in the classroom, it also unlocked potential for healing within their families as well. She began to see the family as a microcosm for the larger world, famously stating, “If we can heal the family, we can heal the world.”

Her interest in working with families led her to pursue further education at the University of Chicago where she earned her Master of Social Work degree in 1948. From early on in her career, Virginia recognized the significant role that families often play in contributing to an individual’s problems and by extension their crucial role in contributing to the healing process. Her unique approach and ability to help difficult clients quickly led to recognition and demand as a consultant, author, and world-renowned trainer – as well as countless awards that included being voted “Most Influential Therapist” in two national surveys of Psychiatrists, Psychologists, Social Workers, and Marriage and Family Therapists (Psychotherapy Networker, 2007).

During her lifetime, Virginia wrote several widely acclaimed books on the subject of family therapy and she helped establish organizations such as the Mental Research Institute, International Human Learning Resources Network (IHLRN), and The Avanta Network (now The Virginia Satir Global Network) for the purpose of training and providing resources for therapists. She remained devoted to helping others and worked tirelessly up until her death in 1988 writing and traveling the globe as a trainer and lecturer.

The Satir Model ultimately expanded beyond the realm of family therapy and became recognized as applicable to all situations where improving human communication and growth is desired, proving to be useful in areas ranging from therapy and social work to education and information technology. The principles embodied in Virginia Satir’s unique combination of intelligence, insight, and compassion are universal in their applicability to the human condition, and there is little doubt that she deserves her status as one of the most significant figures in the history of modern therapy.

More information about Virginia Satir can be found at Good Therapy.

Bio link

DeWitt C. “Bud” Baldwin Jr., MD In Memoriam

Thank you “Bud”.
January 6, 2022

Obituary for Dr. Laura Dodson

Plummer, Minnesota – Laura Sue Dodson returned to God peacefully at a hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, on December 7, 2022, at age 86. Her loving family was with her during her last hospital stay and held her hand at the time of her death.

A Memorial Service was held on December 21st at 1pm at Johnson’s Funeral Service in Thief River Falls. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Burial will be held at Ebenezer Lutheran Cemetery rural Oklee, MN.

Laura was born October 5, 1936, in Dallas, Texas, to Thomas Hal Dodson and Mildred Julia Dunbar Dodson. She was the second child; her brother Tom had arrived two years earlier. Laura began elementary school in Dallas. In 1945, the year she turned age 9, the family moved to Grand Prairie, Texas, just west of Dallas, so that her father could be nearer his work at North American Aviation. In 1946, a sister, Gay Dodson was born.

In 1969, Laura married George Anthony Cronin; he died in 1975. In the year 2000, she married Royce Delmer Forsyth; he died in 2007. As a single person, she adopted two children-in 1978, Jonathan Anthony at 4 days old (born in Denver) and in 1983, Corina Catherine at age 3 (born in Peru).

Laura graduated from Grand Prairie High School in 1954. That year she entered Baylor University in Waco, Texas, where, in 1958, she earned a BA in Education, Psychology, and History. In 1961, she received a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver. In 1975, she received a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Union Graduate School. Her dissertation, Family Therapy: A System Approach, was published in 1977. She was a visiting professor at the Iliff School of Theology in Denver for the 1983-84 school year.

From 1961 to 1969 she was a full-time Psychiatric Social Worker for Fort Logan Mental Health Center in Denver. In 1967, she began a private practice as a Jungian Psychologist in Denver. That practice lasted until semi-retirement some 40 years later. Dr. Dodson always had a sympathetic ear for everyone, wanting to do her best to help. She was quite well-respected in her profession and conducted many conferences in the U.S. and abroad, was author of Psyche and Family, and of several published professional articles. She led the Satir Family Camp in California for over two decades, working with other therapists to bring healing using concepts introduced by her close friend and mentor Virginia Satir.

In her work abroad, she especially loved working with people suffering from the ravages of war. She was the founder of the Institute for International Connections in 1988 that continues today. She led cross-cultural camps in the former Soviet Union outside Moscow with persons from 12 nations. In the past 20 years, she traveled multiple time to Azerbaijan and Thailand training other therapists. Laura always said that her passion lay in carrying psychology out of the office into cultural healing concepts and applications.

When she wasn’t running through airports, she spent the winters in Round Rock, Texas, with her sister Gay, and for the balance of the year made her residence in Plummer, Minnesota. She loved to travel and spend time with her family and friends. She was terrible at small talk, but wonderful at BIG talk and getting to the heart of things.

Laura was preceded in death by her parents. Survivors are son, Jonathan (Kelly) Dodson and their children Jack and Lyla all of Plummer, Minnesota, and daughter, Corina (Scott) Villani and their children Scott, Jr., Veronica, and Giada all of Shaker Heights, Ohio. Also, sister, Gay Dodson, of Round Rock, Texas, and brother, Tom (Jean) Dodson of Fort Worth, Texas, and their children, Karen (Joe) Arrington also of Fort Worth; Kathy (Stan) Taylor of Van Zandt County, Texas; and Brian (Mary) Dodson of Austin, Texas. In addition, there are 5 grandnephews, one grandniece, three great-grandnephews, and one great-grandniece.

More tributes to Laura and Her Work.

MARIA GOMORI
M.S.W., Dip C, Ph.D.
May 25, 1920 – December 10, 2021

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Maria Gomori.
She was predeceased by her husband Dr. Paul Gomori in September 1979. She is survived by her son Andrew (Karen), grandsons, Paul, Steve (Amber) and great-granddaughters, Freya, Elise and Laurel.
The world has lost an influential and special woman who touched the lives of many people during her life’s journey. She will be mourned by her loving family, close friends and students around the world. She impacted the lives of many people through decades of work as an educator and family therapist.
While there will be no official ceremony, Maria’s wishes are for people to celebrate her life and remember the unique and special way that she touched so many people.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to The Haven Institute, Gabriola Island, BC at https://haven.ca/giving.
This obituary may also be viewed at Maria’s website at: http://www.mariagomori.com

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Dec 11, 2021.

JANET CHRISTIE-SEELY 1939 – 2022

Janet Christie-Seely passed away peacefully in the early hours of Aug 11, 2022, after a rapid battle with Alzheimer’s. Janet was a vibrant mother, grandmother, family physician, family therapist, author, artist, lecturer and professor, who was recently seeing patients, painting and writing. She had a passionate ‘joie de vivre’, packed her 83 years to their fullest and never tackled anything in half measures. Janet wore many hats (and usually purple scarves) as a creative, intelligent, beautiful, non- judgmental human. She pioneered a family systems approach to family medicine, bridging family therapy and medicine, and founded the Ottawa Satir Learning Centre. Janet taught locally and internationally, from Azerbaijan to Hong Kong. Janet will be deeply missed by her husband of 25 years, Tom O. Wright; and by her children and their spouses: Jean (Mark), Alison (Kevin), Andrew (Kathy), and Dugald (Sarah); her step-children: Sara (James) and David; as well as her nine grandchildren and six step-grandchildren. Janet always saw the best in people, and lived life to its absolute fullest with enthusiasm and passion. She leaves a legacy of her paintings (of her beloved Scottish and Quebec landscapes), her teachings, her care for a community of patients, and her family, all imbued with her revolutionary spirit of meaningful interaction, pioneering innovation and desire to help people. A Celebration of Janet’s Life will occur at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 20, 2022 at Pinecrest Remembrance Chapel, 2500 Baseline Road, Ottawa. Online condolences, tributes and memorial donations may be made at colefuneralservices.com.

Published by The Globe and Mail from Aug. 13 to Aug. 17, 2022.

Dr. Robert S. Spitzer

Bob Spitzer was born on September 16, 1926 in St. Louis and passed away peacefully in his Palo Alto home on December 17, 2015, surrounded by his loving family. A seeker and artist, he left the world a better place.

Bob’s parents, Harry and Anna, moved from Europe to America seeking a better life. Bob grew up with the affection of his elder sister Lucille, while big brother Jerry cultivated Bob’s wit and competitive spirit. Bob tried to enlist in the Navy in World War II but was rejected for epilepsy, so he forged his medical record and served in the Merchant Marines as cadet officer in East Asia.

After the war, Bob entered Yale, where he embraced a variety of intellectual pursuits, graduating in philosophy in 1949. Finishing near the top of his class at Harvard Law School in his first year, he decided he was smart enough to become a doctor. After passing the Bar, he focused on psychiatry at Washington University Medical School where he developed a lifelong fascination with the mind and the empirical approach. When the Psychoanalytic Institute rejected him because “he didn’t know himself well enough”, this ignited an inner search that lasted throughout his life.

While in law school, Bob met Becky, the love of his life, and thus began their 64-year courtship. Early in their romance, Becky took him to Colorado for the “cabin test,” where he proved his worth hiking, chopping wood, and joining campfire sing-a-longs at 9,600 feet. They returned almost every year, eventually bringing their children, Mandy, Dan, and David, and their families as well. In the 1950’s, Becky inspired Bob when he saw her participate with her sister Jane in civil disobedience protests against segregated lunch counters. He directed this inspiration toward a life of civil rights and social justice work.

Bob moved his family to Palo Alto in 1961, where he joined the Stanford faculty and the Mental Research Institute, a center of pioneering work in behavioral sciences. Bob was exhilarated by his colleagues and in particular, by Virginia Satir. This led to decades of creative partnership. Bob acquired the publishing house, Science & Behavior Books, releasing many seminal books that influenced millions of mental health professionals. When Virginia, Bob, and Becky helped to establish IHLRN (an international association of therapists), Bob felt for the first time that he could impact a broad community.

Meanwhile Bob explored other approaches to community development. With Becky, he established the first free and anonymous pregnancy testing service in California. In the late 1960’s, he formed an intentional community on land he bought in the Santa Cruz mountains, which for the past 40 years has been home to dozens of artists and writers in diverse fields. It was the center of the nascent “home birth” movement in Northern California, which Bob supported medically and financially. Neurolinguistic Programming was also created there, along with important works by Gregory Bateson. Combining his legal and psychiatric perspectives, Bob brought a holistic approach to the treatment of incest. He included the extended family among the victims as they also suffered from the crime. He founded Parents United, which became an international organization that both provided broad-based therapy and drove policy change, resulting in the reform of California’s relevant laws.

Bob was a patriot who believed America had the obligation to engage responsibly in the world. He was outraged by the Vietnam War and was arrested for blocking the Oakland draft center in 1967, leading to 10 days in jail “which became a teach-in with colleagues ranging from Roy Kepler to Joan Baez”. Bob traveled to Nicaragua many times to record America’s secret engagement in the Iran-Contra arms deals, often filming with bullets flying around him. His activities included the famed “Baseball for Peace” journeys with San Francisco Giants Manager Dusty Baker and other athletes. Bob’s activism included filming Brian Willson sitting on railroad tracks to stop an armaments shipment before he was run over by the speeding train. Bob’s footage was broadcast internationally, further influencing the debate on American military policy.

Bob was deeply influenced by trips to India where he learned to meditate and experienced a new reality of how people could live together and with themselves. For the last 25 years of his life, Bob didn’t eat meat with the stated purpose of challenging people to shift food priorities to feed the world. He struggled with depression throughout his adulthood, brought on by the death of his father. After trying a variety of conventional pharmacological treatments, he found marijuana to be his most effective medical intervention. Through his 60 years of psychiatric practice, he deeply honored his patients, willing to go to their dark places, while never judging them.

Bob is remembered as a loving husband, father, grandfather, friend, and mentor to many.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/sfgate/obituary.aspx?n=robert-spitzer&pid=177197682

Margarita M. Suarez, age 76, died October 17, 2018 after what she called “a blessed and full life.” She worked for peace and justice with a special sense of humor and simplicity. Margarita was born in Havana, Cuba on August 5,

1942, the fifth of 14 children of Manuel Suarez and Eloisa Gaston. She was active in the Cuban underground against Fidel Castro before a two-year stint as a novice with the Maryknoll Sisters. She completed her MA in psychosocial nursing, University of Washington. She served as a U.S. Army nurse in Vietnam, worked as a pediatric nurse practitioner, taught at the University of Washington School of Nursing, and worked as a private counselor in the areas of family interaction, child and adolescent grief, and conflict management.

On a national level Margarita conducted workshop trainings with Virginia Satir, who pioneered a family therapy model. Later she served as executive director of AVANTA The Virginia Satir Network. Margarita’s wit and wisdom brought her national prominence as a keynote speaker, mentor, and advocate for health and social services. Margarita is survived by her wife Sandi Spence, 10 brothers and sisters, 49 nieces and nephews, and many friends – especially her faith community, which accompanied her through her illness with multiple myeloma.

https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/seattletimes/obituary.aspx?n=margarita-m-suarez&pid=190521874