Dr. Marjorie Gerdine

1927 - 2019

Dr. Marjorie Wells Gerdine, 91, a retired clinical psychologist and educator, passed away peacefully on March 6, 2019 at the Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer, Massachusetts. She was 91 and a long-time resident of Concord, Massachusetts. She also enjoyed her long-held residences in the Pocono Mountains at Buck Hill Falls, PA, on Cape Cod at Cummaquid, MA and Greenwich and Southbury, CT. On August 8, 1964 in South Dennis, MA, she married Dr. Philip Van Horn Gerdine of Dallas, TX, her devoted husband of 55 years and an international corporate development executive and public company director. They were active in philanthropy and have established various fellowships and scholarships in the arts and medicine, particularly at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine. She was an avid genealogist and enjoyed music, ballet, opera and gardening. Marjorie was born June 30, 1927 in Worcester, MA, the youngest of four daughters of the late Henry Otto Wells and Viola (Secor) Wells of Waban, MA. She lived her early years in Waban and graduated from Newton High School in 1946. She then attended the College of Liberal Arts at Boston University majoring in psychology and sociology and graduated with an A.B degree cum laude in 1951. She was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa, Pi Gamma Mu, Pi Lambda Theta and Psi Chi societies at the University. Upon graduation, she was married for several years, to George Carl Lakatos, M.D., a student at the University and a native of Baden-bei-Wien, Austria, and they moved to Switzerland while he pursued his medical studies at the University of Bern Medical School. From 1952 to 1955, she served as a teacher and school administrator in several Swiss private schools, including Institut Bleu-Lman and cole de Pense in Montreux and Le Grand Verger in Lausanne as well as the Erwachsene Schule in Bern. In 1954 she worked for the United States Legation in Bern and later became a Translator and English Correspondent for Frberei Scholl AG in Zofingen. Upon her return to United States in 1957, she continued her professional education at Boston University School of Education where she earned a M.Ed. in Rehabilitation Counseling in 1958 and, at the Graduate School, an A.M. in psychology in 1959. She completed her education there with a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1967. During her years in Boston, she trained at The Boston University Counseling Service, was a Staff Psychologist at The Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Framingham, and Lecturer at the Division of Continuing Education of the University. In 1959-60, she interned at the Douglas A. Thom Clinic for Children, and in 1960-61 at the Judge Baker Guidance Center. From 1961 through 1964, she also served as the Consulting Psychologist at the Lexington Public Schools, and from 1964 to 1968 as the Chief Psychologist for a well-known epileptologist, Csare Lombroso, at the Seizure Unit at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston. In 1968-69 she was a Research Fellow in Psychology with Dr. Robert I. Bragg in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital. During this period she was also a consultant in psychology and Interim Director of the Krebs School Foundation in Lexington. Later she was also professor in the Psychology Department of the University of Rhode Island. Marjorie maintained a large private practice during this time, working with children and adolescents, and she published research articles on dyslexia and community mental health referral patterns. She was a member of the American, Massachusetts and Connecticut Psychological Associations and was licensed to practice by the Massachusetts Board of Certification in Psychology. Marjorie is survived by her beloved husband and 33 nephews and nieces. Family and friends are invited to attend her graveside service at Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt. Auburn Street, Cambridge, on Monday, March 18th at 10 am, followed by a memorial service beginning at 11 am in the Bigelow Chapel at Mount Auburn. Contributions may be made to Medicines sans Frontires, 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001. Arrangements are under the care of Dee Funeral Home & Cremation Service of Concord. To share a remembrance or to send a condolence in her online guestbook, please visit www.DeeFuneralHome.com.