SPP History
History Committee
Articles
Recollections
In MEMORIAM
Historical Minutes
Previous Conferences
Video Interviews
In February of 2008, the SPP Executive Committee approved the establishment of the position of SPP Historian and a History Committee. The initial committee (listed below) consists of a cross-section of generational representatives in the history of SPP. The History Committee will guide the collection and archived accessibility of historical material for researchers and students.
As one of the charges to the History Committee, the History Pages will provide information on the founding, development, and activities over time for the Society, and will provide resources on the vibrant field of pediatric psychology. These pages will eventually present historical milestones, articles on SPP and pediatric psychology history, photographs and artifacts from different eras, conference programs, white papers, task force reports, and other publications of SPP.
The History Pages are a work in progress. As part of their initial development, we invited anybody with photographs and other materials to submit materials for inclusion here, especially photos and documents from the early years of SPP. This invitation is still open. We look forward to hearing from you.
SPP Co-Historians: Anne Kazak, PhD, and Michael Roberts, PhD
Current History Committee
- Anne Kazak, Co-Chair
- Michael Roberts, Co-Chair
- Brandon Aylward
- Ronald Brown
- Kimberly Canter
- Jennifer Lee
- Laura Mee
- Diane Willis
Initial History Committee:
- Ronald Brown
- Gerald Koocher
- Anne Kazak
- William A. Rae
- Lawrence J. Siegel
- Annette La Greca
- Gary Mesibov
- Brian Stabler
- Gene Walker
- Sue White
- Donald Routh
- Carolyn Schroeder
- Diane Willis
- Dennis Drotar
Articles on SPP History
The history committee plans to continue digging into and writing about SPP's past. You'll find more articles in this section over time! For now, check out this one by co-historians Anne Kazak and Michael Roberts, written last summer and published here for SPPAC 2023:
- August 2022: Advocacy and public policy in the Society of Pediatric Psychology, by Anne Kazak and Michael Roberts
Recollections
In 1989, as part of the celebration of “Coming of Age” for the Society of Pediatric Psychology when the organization turned 21 years old, Phyllis Magrab (SPP Historian) collected these Recollections (PDF, 21MB) from the then Past-Presidents of the Society (and the photographs were presumably from the year in which the President served his or her term).
In Memoriam
SPP will recognize and document the death of its members. This will include a brief announcement in Progress Notes and may also include a more detailed summary as for the psychologists listed below. For more information, see In Memoriam guidelines.
Donald “Don” Joseph Brunnquell, Ph.D. (1952-2023)
Donald K. Freedheim, PH.D. (1932–2023)
Dennis C. Russo, Ph.D., ABPP (1950 - 2023)
Brian Stabler, Ph.D. (1944-2022)
Laura Gerak, Ph.D. (1963-2023)
Donna Ruebush Copeland, Ph.D. (1939-2022)
Samuel LeBaron, PhD, MD (1943-2022)
Philip W. Davidson, Ph.D. (1941-2022)
Jerome Kagan, Ph.D. (1929-2021)
Milton F. Shore, Ph.D. (1928-2017)
William (Bill) N. Friedrich, PhD, ABPP (1951-2005)
Ralph M. Gibson, PhD (1923-2001)
Logan Wright, Jr., Ph.D. (1933-1999)
Historical Minutes
Previous Conferences
Video Interviews
Documenting the History and Progress of Pediatric Psychology
In the Spring 2012, Michael C. Roberts, Ph.D., taught a graduate course on Pediatric Psychology in the Clinical Child Psychology Program at the University of Kansas. As part of the course requirements, trainees participated in the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP) History Project. This project had to mission to document the development of the concepts and the field, the SPP organization, and the variety of professional activities in practice and research. One class activity was to update and add details to the Pediatric Psychology entry in Wikipedia and numerous linkages. This activity was affiliated with the Association for Psychological Science initiative to improve the quality and content of scientific entries on Wikipedia. As a result, the pediatric psychology entry was enhanced to be a more comprehensive and useful resource.
A second class assignment was to create a set of videotaped interviews with established figures and rising professionals in pediatric psychology. The interviews were intended to be posted to the Society’s website but were not completed then. These interviews were recorded in person and over the internet. The model for these interviews was based on a series of interviews with pediatric psychologists conducted by Dr. Brian Stabler in 1985 (and only one of those is currently available, with Dr. Dennis Drotar, also presented here). Only a handful of the videos are available from the over twenty interviews conducted by the University of Kansas trainees (who were in Clinical Child Psychology, Clinical Psychology, Counseling Psychology, and School Psychology). We appreciate the technical efforts of Dr. Bryan Carter to improve the quality of the remaining interviews. Additional interviews are include to provide a more robust perspective on pediatric psychology. We invite other videos and interviews to be submitted to the SPP History Committee.
Dr. June Tuma, now retired, was a professor of psychology at Louisiana State University and an early member of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (SPP). She served as President of SPP (1979 - 1980) and President of the Section on Clinical Child Psychology, also serving as editor of Journal of Clinical Child Psychology (JCCP). Dr. Tuma was the editor of the volume, Handbook for the practice of pediatric psychology published by Wiley-Interscience in 1982. This volume was one of the first books in the pediatric psychology field. She was a major contributor to the development of training guidelines for clinical child and pediatric psychology (e.g., she chaired the Hilton Head Conference on Training Clinical Child Psychologists in 1985) and wrote articles on training models in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology and JCCP. This interview was conducted by Dr. Idia Thurston at the 2019 SPPAC on the event of our 50th Anniversary.
Dr. Cynthia Gerhardt interviews Dr. Donald K. Routh at the 2019 SPPAC Convention celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Society of Pediatric Psychology, where he shares his perspectives on the changes in pediatric psychology since the beginnings of the specialty. Throughout his career Don was a strong advocate for children, families, and those with developmental disabilities and chronic health conditions. Two of his books were particularly important contributions: his edited Handbook of Pediatric Psychology (1988) covered a field where he was a pioneer, and Clinical Psychology since 1917 (1994) demonstrated his prowess as historian. He was elected President of the Society of Pediatric Psychology (now Division 54), the Section on Clinical Child Psychology (now Division 53), Division 37, Division 12, and Division 33. He chaired the Behavioral Medicine Study Section of the National Institutes of Health and founded the International Society of Clinical Psychology. He was a Fellow of APA and the Association for Psychological Science. In recognition of his career contributions, he received Presidential Awards from Division 54 (1981), the Academy on Mental Retardation (2001), and the American Association on Mental Retardation (2002) as well as an APA Presidential Citation (2002), the Nicholas Hobbs Award from Division 37 (1996), and the Edgar A. Doll Award from Division 33 (2001).
Bryan Carter: A Career in PedPsych (2022)
Bryan Carter, Ph.D., discusses the origins and evolution of his career as an academic children’s medical center pediatric psychologist focusing on the “lessons learned along the way,” including survival skills in the challenging medical center environment. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics with the University of Louisville School of Medicine, a co-founder of the Division 54 Consultation-Liaison Special Interest Group, recipient the SPP Carolyn S. Schroeder Award for Outstanding Clinical Practice (2014) and the SPP Wright Ross Salk Award for Distinguished Service (2023).
Bryan Carter: Coping w/ Chronic Pediatric Illness (2022)
Bryan Carter, Ph.D., in an invited Department of Psychiatry Grand Rounds at Indiana University School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children, describes the challenges of and lessons learned in the course of a career focusing on working with children, adolescents and their families coping with the demands of chronic illness. He is currently an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics with the University of Louisville School of Medicine, co-editor with Dr. Kris Kullgren of the Clinical Handbook of Psychological Consultation in Pediatric Medical Settings (Springer), and senior author of the Children’s Health and Illness Recovery Program (CHIRP) Teen and Parent Workbook and CHIRP Clinician Guide (Treatments That Work Series, Oxford University Press).
Reflections on the 10 Years of CL SIG (2021)