Robert De Young

Dr. Robert Arthur De Young passed away on January 16, 2025, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, after a 6-year struggle with leiomyosarcoma. He was a respected, effective, and passionate clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst and an extraordinarily loving son, brother, uncle, cousin, husband, stepfather, and grandfather.

Robert was born in Detroit in 1957, and grew up in Park Ridge, Illinois. He was born with retinoblastoma and lost his eyesight completely at age 8. This condition did not stop him from leading an exceptionally rich, active, accomplished, and generous life. He was a competitive athlete (swimming, wrestling, track, Beep baseball, rowing) and an expert woodcarver.

He graduated from Augustana College and earned a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the VA Hospital in Ann Arbor, became a staff psychologist there, and then began his private practice of psychology. He became a graduate psychoanalyst after training at the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute.

He served as chair of the Committee on Disabilities in Psychology of the American Psychological Association, co-chair of the Candidates Organization of the Michigan Psychoanalytic Institute (MPI), and a valued member of several MPI committees. He taught courses to medical residents and psychoanalytic candidates in such subjects as psychodynamic concepts; the psychoanalytic understanding of the immigrant experience; working with patients who are parents; and mortality, mourning, and literature.

Robert was also passionate about peace and social justice. He picketed at nuclear power plants in the 1980's. In 1995 he completed an 8-month Interfaith Pilgrimage for Peace and Life organized by Buddhist monks to commemorate the end of World War II. This pilgrimage covered nearly 10,000 miles (over 3,000 of them on foot), and crossed through 18 countries, in which the participants were joined by local peace marchers. It began at Auschwitz and ended at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Before graduate school, he worked as a therapist at The Marjorie Kovler Center for the Treatment of Survivors of Torture.

Robert was predeceased by his father James Joseph DeYoung and his mother Alice ("Ginger") Mae DeYoung (née Hale). He is survived by his wife, Dr. Dion Frischer; his stepdaughter Marissa (Joseph) and two grandchildren; his siblings Bill DeYoung (Barb McWilliams), Jane Bartesch, Virginia DeYoung, and Ellen Kramer; sister-in-law Patricia Frischer (Darwin Slindee); 14 nieces and nephews; 12 grandnephews and grandnieces; and many loving friends and grateful patients.

Robert donated his body to the Anatomical Donations Program at the University of Michigan to help medical students and medical research. A memorial celebration of his life will be held at a later date. For details about this event, you may send an e-mail to rdymemorial@gmail.com

Donations in Robert's memory can be made to:

National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation

https://nlmsf.org/donate/

Michigan Psychoanalytic Foundation

https://www.mpi-mps.org/about/get-involved/donate/