Death Notice

David Mendell, a long-time member of AFTA, died recently. The following is the obituary that appeared in THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE, Dec. 4, 1999.

Death Notices/Obituaries - DAVID MENDELL, M.D., 90, died December 2, 1999, his after a brief illness. He was born May 10, 1909, in New York City. He graduated from City College of New York, and received M.D. from the University of Vienna Medical School in Vienna, Austria. He interned at St. Joseph's Hospital in Houston, then practiced general medicine here from 1936 to 1942, when he entered the Air Force. Dr. Mendell was Lt. Colonel and Senior Medical Officer at Camp Pinedale in Fresno, California. In 1946, he left the Air Force to do his psychiatric residency and psychoanalytic training at the Langley Porter Clinic in San Francisco. He returned to Houston in 1950, beginning his private practice of psychiatry, which continued until October 1999. Dr. Mendell was a nationally known pioneer in the fields of group and family psychotherapy. He was Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, and Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine. During a long and distinguished career, he was the founder and first president of both the Houston Psychiatric Society and the Southwest Regional Group Psychotherapy Society, president of the American Academy of Psychotherapists, Fellow and director of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, chairman of the Committee on the Family of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, and a Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. Dr. Mendell was an active member of many community organizations, as well as an avid mandolin player, gardener, and world traveler. November 11, 1989, was declared Dr. David Mendell Day in Houston by then Mayor Kathy Whitmire. He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Miriam, and two sons, Jeffrey Mendell, M.D., of Washington, D.C., and Mark Mendell, Ph.D., of Cincinnati, Ohio. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Seven Acres Senior Care Services, 6200 N. Braeswood, Houston, Texas 77074. The funeral service will be held on Sunday, December 5, 1999, at 3 p.m., in the Sanctuary at Congregation Beth Yeshurun, 4525 Beechnut, with Rabbi David Rosen officiating.

Location: TX Date: 12/4/1999
Source: Houston Chronicle