Dr. Richard "Dick" Aime` LeBel

1929 - 2019

Dr. Richard (Dick) Aimé LeBel

 

 

SALEM - Well-known Salem psychologist and educator, Dr. Dick LeBel, 90, passed away peacefully with his loving family at his side on Monday March 11, 2019.  Dick was born and raised in Salem, the son of Aimé Joseph and Rose Amy (Bouchard) LeBel.  He graduated from Salem High School and entered the U.S. Navy submarine service before the end of World War II.  Declining an Annapolis appointment, he opted for a tour of duty in the Pacific aboard the USS Ronquil (SS-396) and travelled from Pearl Harbor to the Marshall, Society, and Mariana Islands, Tahiti, Sai Pan, Guam, and Yokosuka, Japan. 

 

After his military service, Dick received his Bachelor’s degree from Tufts College and Master’s and Doctoral degrees in psychology from Boston University.  He was awarded a Diplomate (ABPP) in educational psychology and inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of School Psychology.  Dr. LeBel was an accomplished clinical and educational Psychologist who practiced in New York state and Massachusetts for nearly seventy years.  Early in his career, he worked at the Pentagon for the Department of Defense. He was also the first Director of Guidance at the Bedford School System, a columnist for a Long Island, NY news publication on “Your Child and You” and later was an Associate Dean and Professor at Endicott College.  He also taught at Bentley College, and was Professor Emeritus at Salem State College, where he established and chaired the Psychology Department for many years.  Dick also founded the Leigh-Bel Institute, a special education school in Middleton and Corporate Child Care Consultants which opened the first mall-based child care program in the state. 

 

Dick was proud to be from Salem and believed there was no finer community to be raised in.  He loved strolling down memory lane ‘remembering when.’  Dick also served his community.   He was a member of the Civil Air Patrol, the Chairman of the Salem Youth Commission, an officer of Historic Salem, Inc., the Founder and President of the Danvers/Salem Mental Health Board, a Trustee of the New England Home for the Deaf, and the President of Hamilton Hall.

 

He was an avid athlete and earned letters at Salem High School in football, hockey, track, cross country and later ran track and cross country at Tufts University.  He also played football on the Salem Town Team.  Dick was also a runner, tennis player, biker, and a sailing and skiing enthusiast – but often wondered how he could win any tennis match with such a lousy serve, sail anywhere in his ‘slowest boats in the harbor’: the “Passionate Witch” and the “Le Bel Monde”; and why he didn’t take out other skiers with his efficient but completely graceless technique.  Above all, Dick enjoyed people: his family, his friends, his students, and those he worked with.  He was also a member of the Eastern Yacht Club for many years and a past member of the Corinthian Yacht Club and Tedesco Country Club in Marblehead and the Lago Mar Country Club in Plantation, FL.

 

Dick was the loving husband of Dr. Janice (Reymond) LeBel and devoted father of Dr. Alyssa Ann LeBel and son-in-law, Dr. Edward Kaye of Marblehead and the late Victoria Amy LeBel Bottomley.  He was also the proud grandfather of Amy Bottomley Cavilla and her husband, Robert Cavilla, of Hamilton and Dimitri Kaye of Marblehead; and the adoring great-grandfather of John Robert Cavilla and Weston V. Aimé Cavilla of Hamilton.  He is also survived by his sister, Gloria Kaminski of Jaffrey, NH, wife of the late Dr. Ben Kaminski, and their children: Kathryn, Karyn, her partner, Jeff Putnam, and their children Timothy and Russell Putnam of Alstead, NH.  Extended family was important to Dick and he valued special time with Bernard and Connie Kelly and their sons, Ryan and Neil, of Mashpee, MA; Courtney Travis and her children: William Yoder and Tristan and Ella Travis, from Philadelphia; Merry Reymond and her husband, Dave Hendrickson, from Cary, NC; and Robin Harnist and her daughters April, Holly and Melissa and their families in Roanoke, VA.

 

Dick’s visiting hours will be held at the Murphy Funeral Home, 85 Federal St, corner of North Street, Salem on Thursday, March 14, 2019 from 4 to 8 P.M.  A Funeral Mass will be held at St. Ann Church, 292 Jefferson Ave, Salem on Friday, March 15, 2019 at 10:00 A.M.  Interment will be held at Greenlawn Cemetery, Salem.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Reid’s Ride Memorial Cancer Research Fund through Essex County Community Foundation at eccf.org.

For further information, contact Murphy Funeral Home at 978-744-0497 or visit www.murphyfuneralhome.com.