Heads Child Guidance Program

A doctor whose responsibilities have accumulated at the same swift pace as his specialty, Dr. George E. Gardner '25, since 1941 the director of the famed Judge Baker Guidance Center in Boston, has been appointed to a new position of importance and outstanding community value. As Director he will conduct a cooperative program planned to attack the emotional difficulties and behavioral problems that beset so many of today's children. Initiated and planned by the Harvard Medical School, the Children's Hospital and the Judge Baker Guidance Center, the program will cover the full range of childhood from infancy through adolescence. Dr. Gardner in addition to heading the Judge Baker Guidance Center becomes Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard and Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Children's Hospital.

For the continued guidance of children as they grow up, the new program will maintain a close relationship between doctors, psychiatrists and hospitals. As a result of Harvard's increased activity in child psychiatry, this specialty has become a major division in Children's Hospital. Emphasis is placed on the handling of physical illnesses which may have psychological causes, such as pernicious vomiting, as well as the emotional difficulties in adjustment faced by children stricken with a sudden crippling disease like polio. In this three-way program, doctors-in-training will be able to study behavioral problems treated at the Judge Baker Center and also the relation of mental to physical health at the Children's Hospital. Dr. Gardner as director will be closely concerned with the teaching of doctors in the Harvard Medical School and the advanced training of pediatricians, psychiatrists and social workers. A main hope is to prevent mental illness. Since causes for this frequently originate in early childhood, such a combination of approaches offers promise of reducing the heavy toll to individuals and the community, resulting from juvenile delinquency and many other disorders.

Following his graduation from Dartmouth, Dr. Gardner went first into the field of educational psychology, receiving the Ed.M. degree from Harvard in 1926, the Ph.D. in 1930. For eight years he served as a psychologist in McLean Hospital. He became the senior psychiatrist there in 1939, after receiving the M.D. degree from Harvard in 1937. Dr. Gardner joined the staff of the Judge Baker Guidance Center in 1940. During his busy career he has found time to write extensively on psychological and psychiatric subjects, and has held offices in various scientific and honorary societies. He is married to the former Beatrice Kershaw, also a physician, and they have two daughters.

DR. GEORGE E. GARDNER '25