LeRoy Spaniol, PhD, 1938-2020

Abstract

Presents the obituary of LeRoy Spaniol, PhD (1938-2020). LeRoy was a professor at Boston University for 31 years and a cofounder and senior director at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation from 1974 until his retirement. Leroy's dedication to service began early in his life as a seminarian, followed by his work as a therapist helping people heal from divorce and serious mental illness. LeRoy's nationally and internationally cited research and prolific publications focused on the role of the family in psychiatric rehabilitation, effectively serving homeless individuals, competency-based staff training, program evaluation, and coping and recovery from serious mental illnesses. LeRoy's research and authorship of training curricula that emphasized the importance of recovery "as a possibility and even an expectation and key paradigm shift for our field" is a hallmark of his work. To that end, one of LeRoy's proudest accomplishments was founding and teaching in the Recovery Education Center, a rehabilitation program for people with psychiatric disabilities at the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation at Boston University. LeRoy participated on many national and regional boards of directors and commissions, and research review committees and was a founding member of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Massachusetts in 1982. His work with families continued in his retirement, serving as president of NAMI of Cape Cod for 8 years. The awards and distinctions that LeRoy received throughout his career are numerous, and of key importance to him was the LeRoy Spaniol Educator Award established by the Psychiatric Rehabilitation Association (PRA). This award is presented to an individual who has made outstanding contributions toward educating and mentoring a new generation of leaders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).