Joan C. Truitt

Joan C. Truitt, 78, a noted Indianapolis psychologist and educator, died Monday, Jan. 5, 2009, after a short illness. Dr. Truitt began her professional career as a family education and assessment specialist in the Oak Lawn and Chicago school systems and with Operation Head Start. From 1965 to 1968, she served as dean of women at DePaul University. She then moved to Indiana, where she served as director of student development at St. Mary-of-the-Woods College. She earned her doctorate in psychology in 1974 from Indiana State University, and worked at the Hamilton Center in Terre Haute, before moving to Indianapolis in 1986 and opening a private practice.Over the years, she served on the adjunct faculty of the Adler School of Professional Psychology in Chicago, Indiana University School of Medicine, and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Personology and Psychopathology in Coral Cables, Fla. She also co-founded the Personality Studies Institute in Indianapolis with Dr. Harlan Higgins, who called her passing a great loss to the city’s mental health community.“Dr. Truitt will be remembered for her pursuit of knowledge, particularly in the study of personality theory, and above all her compassion for people and the vagaries of the human condition,” he said.She was predeceased by her first husband, Harvey Kelly, a Chicago businessman; her second husband, John Truitt, vice president of student affairs at Indiana State University; and a son, Joseph Kelly.She is survived by a sister, Carol Stumpe; son, James Kelly; daughter, Kathleen Kelly; stepson, John Truitt; stepdaughter, Cheryl Olsen; six grandchildren, Bradford, Patrick, Joseph and Kevin Kelly, Cullane and Connor Horne, five stepgrandchildren; two great-grandchildren; and Godchild, Darla Sacopulos.Visitation will be Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009, from 4 to 8 p.m. in Leppert Mortuary, Nora Chapel, 740 E. 86th Street, Indianapolis. Funeral services will be private.