Jane Wilson Kessler, a longtime professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, passed away on July 21. She was 104 years old.
Born in Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, Dr. Kessler earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan and her master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University. Upon completing her graduate studies in 1943, she entered the U.S. Navy and spent the next three years at various hospital bases treating patients with battle-related psychological and neurological trauma. In 1947, she was hired as the first-ever staff psychologist at the University Hospitals of Cleveland. She completed her doctorate from Case Western Reserve University one year later, and was elevated to the role of chief psychologist for the hospital’s child psychiatric clinic.
For the next forty years, Dr. Kessler taught as a professor in the department of psychology at Case Western Reserve University. During her long tenure, she had two stints as department chair, directed the clinical training program for psychology, was president of the university’s faculty senate. She also founded the Mental Health Development Center, a program dedicated to supporting children with developmental disabilities and their families. She retired from the university in the early 1990s as the Lucy Adams Leffingwell Distinguished Professor Emerita of Psychological Sciences.