Richard L. Weidenbacher Jr. ’51

A scholar, medical doctor, and student of the human psyche, Rich died suddenly May 10, 2006, after a full and intellectually challenging life.

Born Jan. 8, 1930, in Philadelphia, he graduated from Exeter cum laude. At Princeton he was a history major and a member of Ivy, and roomed with Markley Roberts. He earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

Thereafter he spent several years as a medical doctor aboard merchant vessels plying the West Coast of South America. He returned to do postgraduate training in pathology, surgery, general psychiatry, and child psychiatry.

After completing a residency in general psychiatry at Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., he served in Vietnam from 1969 to 1971 in the Navy Medical Corps as psychiatrist to the First Marine Division. He went on to complete a residency in child psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York.

From 1973 to the time of his death, Rich was a psychiatrist in the forensic psychiatry service at Kings County Hospital, a practice that covered medical, legal, moral, political, and philosophical issues.

On his own, he studied Arabic, Japanese, and Greek.

Rich is survived by his sister, Lee Winborne. We join her in remembering this gifted and dedicated man.