Frederick L. Meisel ’63

Fred died at home Jan 14, 2023, of cancer. He was an eminent child psychiatrist who practiced and taught in the Boston area for more than 50 years.

Fred came to Princeton from H. Frank Carey High School in Franklin Square, N.Y., where he was class vice president and salutatorian, a member of the National Honor Society, and played on the varsity basketball, soccer, tennis, and lacrosse teams. At Princeton, he majored in English, writing his thesis on “The Dramatic Form of Eugene O’Neill,” and took his meals at Tiger Inn. He started the Princeton Nighty Agency, a student enterprise that sold Princeton-branded pajamas and nightgowns — and that also allowed him a car on campus.

Fred earned a medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York in 1968. He completed his residency in adult, adolescent, and child psychiatry at Harvard Medical School/Massachusetts Mental Health Center, serving as chief resident. He taught in the psychiatry departments of Boston’s Children’s Hospital, Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. He was a teacher, supervisor, and mentor at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, where he was a child and adolescent supervising analyst and served as co-chair of the child program.

For our 50th-reunion yearbook, Fred offered this reflection: “I still work full time in private practice and teach and write, resolving to cut back but unable to do so. I ski, bike, do woodwork, cook, play jazz, and enjoy my family, but I still like to treat patients, perhaps more than ever. We spend August in Martha’s Vineyard, swimming, reading, and living in natural beauty and get to New York as much as we can. All in all, life is good.”

Fred is survived by his wife, Lili; children Zachary, Joshua, and Deb; and four grandchildren.