Jan Fawcett

    Dr. Jan Fawcett died on 5/9/22 at the age of 88 after a long health struggle.

    Born in Jamestown, he grew up in Hamburg, N.Y., near Buffalo. He attended the Naval Academy, then transferred to Rochester to finish college.

    He attended Yale Medical School, Psychiatric Residency at Rochester Associate for the Depression Project at the National Institute of Mental Health.

    At 38, he became one of the youngest people ever to Chair a Department of Psychiatry, when he went to Rush Medical College, a position he held for 30 years. He built a department with a robust research output, encouraging faculty to study anything that might improve lives. He focused on teaching residents how to think, with both the “Fawcett So What? Test” (that is, did the research help anybody), and with the “Dr. Fawcett was Wrong Award” for finding research contradicting something he taught them.

    His research focused mostly on improving treatment of resistant depression and prevention of suicide, frequently commenting that “one good experiment is worth a thousand expert opinions”. He never gave up on a patient, always knowing we can do better.

    He authored many papers, book chapters, books received numerous awards and honors. One that meant the most to him was from what is now known as the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance- the Jan Fawcett Humanitarian Award.

    He is survived by his wife of over 30 years. Katie Busch, M.D; his children Robin Fawcett, Holly Fawcett and her husband Bill Taylor, Marc Fawcett and Andrea Fawcett; his grandchildren- Jessica Fawcett Patel, Brittany Fawcett, Jameson and Marshall Ghalioungui; his sister and brother- in-law- Gretchen and Terrence McCulle; and numerous in-laws, nieces and nephews. He was pre-deceased by his son Craig who died in 2007. He loved them all deeply, and will be greatly missed.