Nathan Bernic Epstein (March 3, 1924 – October 8, 2020). He was born to the late Benny and Shayna (Bernick) Epstein in New Waterford, Nova Scotia. He is predeceased by his wife, Barbara (Elman), his parents, his brother Bucky, his sister-in-law Madeleine Epstein and brother-in-law Vevy Leith. He is survived by his daughters Anne Tobe (Joel Barad), Nancy (David Goldbloom), and Jane. He is also survived by his older sister Fae, his grandchildren Daniel (Jessica Duffin Wolfe), William (Zachary Russell), Gordon, and Lee, as well as his great-grandchildren Wolf and Kensington. He leaves his nieces, nephews, and their children as well as true friends near and far.
Raised on Cape Breton Island in its small but vibrant Jewish community, he left to attend Mount Allison University as an undergraduate but retained his sense of connection to Cape Breton, as well as his accent and colourful language, throughout his life. He completed his medical degree at Dalhousie University and then embarked on his psychiatric residency at McGill University. After two years of training, he moved to Boston for further studies at the Boston State Hospital, followed by training in psychoanalysis at Columbia University. He returned to Canada in 1955 as one of its first training analysts and began clinical and academic work at McGill. He joined the staff of the Department of Psychiatry at the Jewish General Hospital, becoming its Psychiatrist-in-Chief by 1960. At that time, he and his colleagues pioneered a major academic and clinical initiative into the understanding of family functioning and the development of family therapy. For the next 50 years, he remained actively engaged in this research, teaching, and clinical practice, and what came to be known as The McMaster Model of Family Functioning became recognized and used internationally.
In 1967, he became the founding Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the newly created McMaster University Faculty of Medicine in Hamilton, Ontario. Nate always regarded the decade that followed as the most exhilarating phase of his academic career, under the visionary leadership of John Evans, when they fomented a revolution in medical education.
In 1978, he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, as well as Psychiatrist-in-Chief of Butler Hospital. A decade later, on completion of his term, he led the Department of Psychiatry of Parkwood Hospital in New Bedford, Massachusetts, continuing to work on the front-lines of inpatient and outpatient care until age 86.
He enjoyed an international role as a researcher, innovator, leader and clinician. He was an invited speaker in the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Israel, South America, and throughout North America. His scientific publications span more than 50 years and include many articles and book chapters as well as two co-authored books, Silent Majority (1969) and McMaster Model of Family Functioning: A Comprehensive Method for Evaluation and Treatment of Families (2005). He trained generations of students in psychiatry and in family therapy and was recognized with honorary degrees from the University of Guelph and Dalhousie University.
Nate was a charismatic, blunt, intellectually rigorous and demanding man who was unafraid of conflict and drawn to learning – a voracious reader who nevertheless was absorbed by all sports. He played squash into his 80s and watched football, hockey and baseball until his death. Although he was gruff in manner, he both displayed and valued loyalty in friends and family, while never shying away from expressing his opinion or judgment. He never romanticized ageing and rued every loss of independence as an indignity.
In his last decade, he traveled to Tibet, Turkey and Russia. But his final visits to Cape Breton and Hamilton were made possible by his steadfast friend John Bihldorff.
The family gives immeasurable thanks to his gifted and dedicated caregiver Rosa and her team, the devoted staff of Laurelmead, and the many other people there who enriched his life.
There will be no funeral service and arrangements for a virtual memorial will be announced later.
In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to the Benny and Shayna Epstein Scholarship Fund, which Nate established to support medical students from Cape Breton, at http://giving.dal.ca/epstein.
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