For decades, the plight of mentally ill children and minorities often received short shrift from researchers and clinicians; that is, until psychiatrist Jeanne Spurlock, M.D., decided to devote her career to making sure that their unique mental health needs were addressed.

When Spurlock died in Washington, D.C., last month at age 78 from cardiac arrest, those children and others who are not in society’s mainstream lost a dynamic and effective advocate. She never passed up an opportunity to educate professionals, academicians, researchers, and policymakers about the critical role that poverty and racism play in mental health and mental illness. "The consequences [of racism]," she wrote, "are inner conflict, blatantly distressing patterns, and later, moral cynicism and disrespect for authority."

For 25 years, until she retired in 1991, Spurlock served as a deputy medical director of APA and headed its Office of Minority and National Affairs. She also maintained a private practice until last year and was a clinical professor of psychiatry at the medical schools of George Washington and Howard universities.

Spurlock was "the mother and the conscience of APA," said Carolyn Robinowitz, M.D., whose tenure as an APA deputy medical director overlapped with Spurlock’s for more than a decade.

"Jeanne Spurlock was a wonderful role model for so many of us—the first woman to chair a department of psychiatry, a superb clinician, and a thoughtful scientist and educator," added Robinowitz, who is now dean of the medical school at Georgetown University. "She never let us get away with bad behavior or shoddy thinking and never hesitated to call us on it."

Spurlock graduated from Howard University College of Medicine in 1947. This was followed by residency training at Chicago’s Cook County Psychopathic Hospital and a child psychiatry fellowship at the Institute for Juvenile Research in Chicago. In 1968, after several years on the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine, she saw a major opportunity to contribute to the training of black physicians when offered the post of chair of the psychiatry department at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. She held that post until she came to APA in 1974.

Throughout her half-century professional career, Spurlock retained a strong commitment to community activism. She served at various times on the boards of directors of Physicians for Human Rights, the Delta Adult Literacy Council, the Green Door, the Hillcrest Children’s Center, and the National Urban League.

Numerous organizations insisted on honoring and awarding Spurlock for her contributions, but she seemed to find these accolades somewhat embarrassing. Among the honors she received were the National Black Child Development Institute’s Guardian for Children Award and the Professional Leadership Award of the National Medical Association. She received an honorary doctor of science degree from Spelman College in 1983.

APA also honored Spurlock on several occasions, most recently in May when then Assembly Speaker Donna Norris, M.D., presented her with a commendation for outstanding service to psychiatric patients, her commitment to the Assembly, and her years of mentoring young psychiatrists.

Norris told Psychiatric News that Spurlock was a "gifted physician, teacher, and mentor to her psychiatric colleagues—young and old." Norris praised Spurlock’s contributions to children and adolescents in particular, noting that after her retirement she continued volunteering as a tutor for young children.

"Jeanne was masterful in her use of humor to challenge us to think beyond the status quo and to be inclusive of others. Even during her last illness, she was thinking ahead to the needs of our children," said Norris.

APA presented Spurlock with its Distinguished Service Award in 1996, and APA’s Committee of Black Psychiatrists honored her efforts to promote the mental health of African Americans when in 1988 it presented her with the Solomon Carter Fuller Award.

The president of the APA Committee of Black Psychiatrists, Patrice Harris, M.D., hailed Spurlock for "championing the cause of African-American psychiatrists and African-American patients, for which the profession of psychiatry and APA owe her a debt of gratitude. Her contributions to our profession are immeasurable."

Spurlock was as skilled a writer as she was a clinician and administrator. She wrote more than 30 publications.

"Jeanne Spurlock was a courageous and consistent advocate for children’s care," said former APA Medical Director Melvin Sabshin, M.D., who worked with Spurlock for more than 20 years. "For me, she was the epitome of the struggle for parity in the provision of psychiatric services for all minorities."

Spurlock’s family indicated that donations in her memory can be made to the National Black Child Development Institute, the psychiatry division of the Mental Health America, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s Jeanne Spurlock Clinical Fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.