Dr. Everett P. Dulit

Everett Paul Dulit born in Brooklyn on May 2, 1929 to Benjamin Dulit and Florence Feinsilber Dulit, died June 2, 2010. He passed away peacefully in his bed surrounded in the last weeks of his life by his wife, children, sons-in-law, grandchildren and many of his closest friends. Ev Dulit lived in Scarsdale for over forty years with his wife, Elinor, where they raised their children, Rebecca, Kate and Alan.

Dr. Dulit attended Midwood High School in Brooklyn and then the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received a B.S. in 1950 and a Ph.D. in Physics in 1957. He was honored with election to the Sigma Xi National Scientific Research Honor Society in 1952. While at MIT, he met Elinor Greenspun who was attending Radcliffe College. They married in 1954. During his graduate studies at MIT he developed a keen interest in thought and cognitive development and he decided to discontinue his studies in physics. Instead he opted to pursue a career in medicine and psychiatry. They moved to Minneapolis where he attended medical school at the University of Minnesota and obtained an M.D. in 1958. During his medical training he continued his work in physics, returning to Cambridge to complete his research and to defend his thesis and receive his degree in physics in 1957. He interned at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in 1958 in San Francisco and then the following year they moved to the Bronx where he was a Resident in Psychiatry and then Chief Resident at Jacobi Hospital, Bronx Municipal Hospital Center-Albert Einstein College of Medicine from 1959-1962. He graduated from the New York Psychoanalytic Institute in 1968.

Dr. Dulit had a long and illustrious career in psychiatry. He received a National Institute of Mental Health Research Career Development Award from 1962-1967. As part of his work under this grant he studied with Jean Piaget in Geneva, Switzerland in 1962. He adapted Piaget's concepts of pediatric cognitive development to the study of adolescents. During the 1960's through 2000 he became a national figure in Adolescent Psychiatry and was especially known as a gifted teacher and lecturer on cognitive development, adolescent psychotherapy, adolescent suicide and depression, neonatal infanticide, the gifted adolescent, humor, and the art of improvisation as it applies to jazz and adolescent psychotherapy. He was on the faculty of Albert Einstein College of Medicine during most of his career and was Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry from 1983-1987. He was Director of Adolescent Psychiatry at New York Hospital, Cornell Medical Center-Westchester Division from 1976-1980. Dr. Dulit was a founding member of the American Board of Adolescent Psychiatry and a representative to the American Psychiatric Association taskforce for the development of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual III, 1976-1980. In the last 20 years of his career, Dr. Dulit was a Psychiatric Consultant in the Division of Adolescent Medicine at Montefiore Hospital and a faculty member in the Department of Pediatrics at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He also consulted to the NYC Child Protective Services from 1991-1995, the Westchester Family Services from 1997-2004, and at times to the Scarsdale Public School system. Dr. Dulit authored numerous chapters and articles in professional journals and textbooks. He was a beloved mentor to generations of psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers.

Besides psychiatry, Ev Dulit had two important passions in his life; jazz and family. His interest in jazz dated to his own adolescence and he became an accomplished clarinetist and saxophonist. He was active in the Westchester and NYC jazz communities and founded and played in several jazz groups. One group, "Three Shrinks and a Fink", was especially well-known in the Metropolitan mental health world. He also played locally at a number of Westchester restaurants and bars and established a weekly evening jazz series for amateur and professional musicians at DeFemio's Restaurant in Yonkers. Finally, Ev Dulit was a devoted husband, father and grandfather. He supported his wife with pride when she decided to attend medical school at age 43 and continued to have great pride in her achievements during her career as an internist in the Westchester area. He found great joy in the lives of his children, all of whom attended the Scarsdale schools, and he was equally proud of his grandchildren. Dr. Dulit was an avid outdoor enthusiast and enjoyed hiking and skiing and was frequently seen bicycling, rollerblading, or cross country skiing around Westchester County. He was a man of great energy and enthusiasm in all that he did; passing on his love of the outdoors, adventure and travel to his family and friends and inspiring his colleagues, students and his family with his lifelong interest in learning and teaching.

Ev Dulit is survived by his wife, Elinor; by his daughter Rebecca of Scarsdale, his daughter Kate of Newton, Massachusetts and his son Alan of Breckenridge, Colorado; and by his grandchildren Ezra and Naomi Dulit-Greenberg and Josh, Jake and Sarah Feingold and his sons-in-law Joshua Greenberg and Stephen Feingold.