IN MEMORIAM

Dennis ~ Cantwell, M.D. (1939-1997)On April 14, 1997, at age 58, Dennis Cantwell, the Joseph Campbell Chair of Child Psychiatry at UCLA, died in his sleep ofthe complications of chronic heart disease. Dennis, along with a small group of other child psychiatry research investigators,played a leading role in launching a new era in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry. It is an era in which nosology, neuro­biology, genetics, and the psychosocial understanding of child development have come together, leading to a more rigorousunderstanding of the nature and treatment of psychopathology. His scientific contributions have been profound. as attested toby his numerous awards, his role as frequent scientific consult ant to the National Institute of Mental Health, and his greatpopularity as a visiting professor and Grand Rounds speaker. Between 1976 and 1986 he was the Associate Editor of this Journal,and from 1986 to 1990 he was Chair of the AACAP Program Committee. He was also very active in numerous other committeesin the AACAP and in the American Psychiatric Association. Among his honors and awards from the AACAP were the J. FranklinRobinson Memorial Award, the Norbert Reiger Award, and the Elaine Schlosser Lewis Award for Research on Attention DeficitDisorder. The American Psychiatric Association honored him with the Blanche Ittleson Prize for Research in Child Psychiatry andthe Agnes Purcell McGavin Award for outstanding work in the prevention of emotional disorders in children.

What raised Dennis to a preeminent level in the field of child and adolescent psychiatry was not solely his extraordinaryscientific vision and successful pursuit of knowledge, but his role as educator and, to the many colleagues who admired him . hispersona , which was indeed unique in our field.

Dennis was the Child Psychiatry Residency Training Director at UCLA from 1972 to 1991. When he came to UCLA thetrain ing program had a total of four trainees. It grew until , at the height of the economic good times in psychiatric education, itenrolled 22 trainees. Dennis trained upwards of 125 child and adolescent psychiatrists, some of whom have become leadinginvestigators in their own right . Graduates from his program have become training directors or division directors in leadingacademic centers. Others are outstanding clinicians.

Early in his career Dennis developed a curriculum of training which would become a model for other child psychiatryprograms. It was a demanding program, but the trainees loved it. Dennis' stock-in-trade was his insistence that learning shouldbe based on the scientific literature. The size and weight of his annual reading assignments were legendary. And always the focuswas on the specific patient and how his or her history and presentation fit in with the body of psychiatric knowledge. AlthoughDennis had had major involvement in the evolution of the APA's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, he would often say to thosestruggling to make sense out of a clinical conundrum at the Thursday morning psychopathology seminar, "The trouble is, noneof our patients seem to have read the DSM." The rule of attendance at all UCLA child psychiatry seminars was simple : "T hereis only one acceptable reason for nonattendance," he would say, "and that is personal death. " He was a mentor who knew histrainees well and who was as eager to regale them with well-chosen clinical anecdotes as he was to provide them with facts. Theyloved him.

Dennis was regarded equally highly by his colleagues in the United States and abroad. Inevitably. when one of us UCLA facultywould visit elsewhere, after the initial chit-chat there would always come the question, "And tell me, how is Dennis' health thesedays?" Many colleagues cherish their "Dennis" stories and work them into their lectures and talks. 1 have been struck by thevariety of these recollections . "Dennis had a watch that played the Notre Dame fight song," one told me. "You would get thisphone call from Dennis," said another, "and he'd say, 'I want you to invite me to come give Grand Rounds the third week inNovember. Notre Dame will be playing at your place that weekend and 1don 't want to miss the game.' '' He never forgot his daysat Notre Dame University, where he graduated Maxima Cum Laude. A sticker on his office door proclaimed: "God made NotreDame #1."

Dennis was a devoted husband to Susan and devoted father to their five children. Suzi, Dennis Jr.• Coleen, Erin, and Mary.He was active in his church, and following a lifetime interest in sports he was also. early in his career, a consultant to theCalifornia Angels baseball team. Dennis was a leader in the local American Youth Soccer Organization, where he coached teamsfor many years. His encyclopedic knowledge of spons was renowned.

Dennis Cantwell was born in East St. Louis, and he obtained his M.D. and his general psychiat ry training from WashingtonUniversity School of Medicine in St. Louis. He trained in child and adolescent psychiatry at UCLA and had a l-year researchfellowship with Professor Michael Rutter at the Maudsley Hospital in London.

There is no doubt that advances in modern cardiology and skilled surgeons permitted Dennis to be with us as long as he was.His colleagues and the field of child and adolescent psychiatry will greatly suffer his absence.

Peter E. Tanguay, M.D.

1486 J. AM . ACAD. CHILD ADOLES C. PSYCHIATRY. 36:10, OCTOB ER 1997