Lionelle D Wells MD

WELLS, Lionelle, Dudley, M.D. of Newton and Weston, Massachusetts died on June 11, 2011 at Arnold House in Stoneham. Dr. Wells was born on November 22, 1921 in Winnsboro, South Carolina to Mary Hughey Wells and Dr. Lionelle D. Wells, Sr. His father was the attending physician at his birth.

Dr. Wells graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of South Carolina in 1943, and was a First Honors Graduate of the Medical University of South Carolina Medical School in 1945. He interned at Metropolitan Hospital in New York City from 1945-46. As a First Lieutenant with the Army Medical Corps, Dr. Wells served in the Port Quarantine Office with Pacific forces assigned to Nagoya, Japan, where he had an opportunity to help supervise the first Japanese elections in 1947. He later completed psychiatric residencies at the VA Hospital in North Little Rock, Arkansas, and Bowman Gray Medical School in Winston Salem, North Carolina. He completed postgraduate work at the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute in 1960. In December 1951, Dr. Wells began a 60-plus year career in Massachusetts with an appointment as a Staff Psychiatrist, and later, Chief Psychiatrist at the Mental Hygiene Clinic at the Boston VA Outpatient Clinic. He continued to consult there, as well as at Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Medical Center in Bedford, until the early 2000s.

In 1955, Dr. Wells was appointed as a Clinical Associate in Psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He held that role until 1968 when he became Assistant in Psychiatry. Dr. Wells continued to advance his career at MGH and was Senior Psychiatrist to that same department in 2005 when he was honored by the hospital for fifty years of service. Over the years he played an integral part in the teaching of medical students and the training and supervising of residents. One doctor whom Dr. Wells supervised in 1984 at the beginning of her training in psychiatry recalls his gentle and comforting manner. He was, she said, “a very warm and charming gentleman with a wonderful southern accent. He had a very calming effect on a very green trainee whenever presenting patients, and also a keen sense of humor.”

Dr. Wells was active on the hospital’s executive committee for the Department of Psychiatry during the 1960s and 1970s. He also consulted at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Waltham Deaconess Hospital, South Bay Mental Health Center in Brockton, and HRI Hospital in Brookline.

Academic appointments included: Instructor of Psychiatry at MGH from 1955 to 1969; Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry for Harvard Medical School from 1969 to 1978; and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School from 1978 to 1993. He also lectured on Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine and at Tufts University Medical School. In 1994 Dr. Wells was named an Exemplary Psychiatrist by the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI) and in 2003 the American Psychiatric Association honored him with the Distinguished Life Fellow Award. Dr. Wells was a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society, a Director for Bay State Health Care, and served on numerous committees, including the MGH Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Wells began his private practice in Psychiatry and Psychoanalysis in 1959, first at 82 Marlborough Street in Boston and later in Weston and Chestnut Hill. He found great satisfaction in his work and continued to see patients until 2006. Dr. Wells cited the training and mentorship of Dr. John “Jock” Murray, a founding member and past president of the Boston Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, as an influence in his long career, which spanned an era of tremendous change in the field. “Work,” Dr. Wells once said, “is my hobby. I like learning new things. I like to solve problems…I like to be on the cutting edge of knowledge, and this is especially satisfying in psychiatry where we are learning new things very quickly.”

His family remembers him fondly as a man with a remarkable memory barely blunted by time, who was as likely to have saved a 4H certificate earned in second grade as an article of interest in a recent medical publication. A fan of Star Trek and almost anything connected with weather, he started each day with a big bowl of Raisin Bran for breakfast and enjoyed, more than anything, a good meal. He had always hoped to keep working until the day he died.

Dr. Wells is predeceased by his first wife, Mildred, who died in 1986; his brother, Dr. Marius Wells of North Carolina; and two sisters, Catherine and Theo, of South Carolina. He is survived by his second wife, Eileen; a sister, Mrs. Marjorie Jagar of Orangeburg, South Carolina; his daughter Lucia Foley and son-in-law Bill Foley of South Hadley; his son Dr. Lionelle Dudley Wells III and daughter-in-law Mary Wells of Duxbury; his son John Wells and daughter-in-law Marie Wells of Baltimore, Maryland; and daughter Diane Wells and son-in-law Gary Schroeder of Billerica. He is also survived by seven grandchildren and a great grandchild: Jennifer Lee Foley, Ph.D. and her husband, Phil Nesmith, of Richmond, Virginia; Matthew Foley of Granby and his daughter, Layla Foley, of Canton, Connecticut; Lionelle F. Wells of Folsom, California; Valerie Wells and Benjamin Wells of Duxbury; and Carina Wells and Jeremy Wells of Baltimore, Maryland.

A service will be held on Sunday, June 19 at 1:00 p.m. in the Chapel at the First Parish Church, 349 Boston Post Road, Weston, MA, followed by a reception in the Parish Hall. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Depression Clinical and Research Program, c/o Maurizo Fava, MD, Director; Massachusetts General Hospital, WACC #812, Boston, MA 02114, or to First Parish Church, 349 Boston Post Road, Weston, MA 02493.

Arrangements under the direction of Duckett Funeral Home of J. S. Waterman, Sudbury, MA.