Doreen Rothman

Dr. Doreen Z. Rothman

Dr. Doreen Z. Rothman passed away Wednesday January 6th, 2021 in the aftermath of a stroke and after a long illness. She was a brilliant, remarkable woman who dedicated her life to helping others. She grew up in a poor Jewish family in Brooklyn, and became the first person in her family to attend college, earning a full scholarship to Barnard. She graduated from Barnard in 1958 and then went on to get her Ph.D in psychology from the University of Pennsylvania. She then joined the Boston University faculty in Clinical Psychology in a tenure-track position. While she was there she worked on developing the idea for and programmatic details of what would become the national Head Start program.

She met the great love of her life—Stephen Rothman—while attending Jewish summer camp when she was only 13. They had a relationship for the ages. They were virtually inseparable from the time they met. They wrote romantic cards to one another throughout the years, and even after their many decades together still held hands at the movies and over dinner. After moving with her husband and two young children to the Bay Area, Dr. Rothman ran Children's Services for Alameda County for many years, and sat on the board of the Fred Finch Youth Center, helping to develop mental health services for disadvantaged teenagers. She was an outstanding individual therapist in private practice in Berkeley and Castro Valley for decades.

Dr. Rothman will be remembered as a generous, loyal, and loving partner, parent, grandparent, and friend. She is survived by her spouse, Dr. Stephen Rothman, her two children, Peter Rothman and Jennifer Rothman, two daughters-in-law, and seven grandchildren. Donations in her honor can be made to Beth El congregation at www.bethelberkeley.org.