William B. Carey: Obituary
Obituary for William B. Carey MD 1926-2020.
Dr. William B. Carey, 93, a pediatrician, child development researcher, and medical educator, of Cathedral Village in Philadelphia died on July 26th, 2020 of natural causes.
Dr. Carey was best known locally as a dedicated practitioner of general pediatrics, mainly in a solo practice, for 29 years in Media, Pa. His national and international reputation was based primarily on his behavioral research in the newly rediscovered field of children’s temperament differences and their considerable practical importance, starting in the 1960’s.
At first by himself and later with a small group of psychologists, especially Sean C. McDevitt, Ph.D., he developed the first set of parent temperament questionnaires for clinical and research applications in infants and children, using the brilliant conceptualization of the principal pioneers of the field, Drs. Stella Chess and Alexander Thomas of New York. The five scales have been translated into many foreign languages for use abroad. These tests and related research led to many invitations for him to lecture widely around the country and the world from London and Padua to Sydney and Shanghai. His underlying aim was to help parents understand and tolerate these usually normal, largely inborn behavioral style variations and adapt their management appropriately to them. In later years he became a tireless critic of the current tendency by some professionals to try to make these and other sometimes annoying variations of normal behavior into brain function abnormalities calling for inappropriate management including drugs. In particular, he spoke out frequently against the massive overdiagnosis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
William Bacon Carey was born in Germantown, Philadelphia, on December 6, 1926, the third son of Henry Reginald Carey of Cambridge, MA, and Margaret Howell Bacon of Philadelphia. After his father died in 1931, his mother was remarried in 1934 to C. Padgett Hodson, a British naval architect, who died in 1945. Carey’s early education was at The Germantown Friends and Penn Charter Schools. Following the family’s move to Boston in 1936, he attended and graduated from The Fessenden School and Milton Academy. In high school among other achievements he was undefeated as a varsity wrestler. He pursued an American studies major at Yale College and then graduated from the Harvard Medical School in 1954. His pediatric training took place at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he had been teaching part-time since 1960 and more extensively since 1989, when he stopped his practice. (He retired from teaching in the Fall of 2019.) He was a Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania.
His military service was first as a midshipman in the Merchant Marine Cadet Corps from January 1945 until September 1946 involving one trip to the Philippines and five to Europe. Later he served 1957-1959 as a Captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Arizona.
In 1956 he married Ann Lord McDougal in her parents’ house in Libertyville, IL. They raised three daughters: Katharine B. Carey of St. Paul MN, Laura B. Carey of Bryn Mawr PA, and Elizabeth M. Carey of New York City. Mrs. Carey died in December of 2014.
His publications include over 130 research papers, reviews, commentaries, editorials, and book chapters. He was the author, co-author, or co-editor of 9 books: one for professionals about clinical aspects of children’s temperament (Coping with Children’s Temperament), a popular similar one for parents (Understanding Your Child’s Temperament), two anthologies on the subject by distinguished authors, a practical guide for clinicians (Child Behavioral Assessment and Management in Primary Care), and all four editions of the original and leading textbook covering his general field of interest, Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, from 1983 through 2009. With McDevitt he developed the BASICS Behavioral Adjustment Scale, an improved comprehensive assessment of various levels of children’s general behavioral functioning. Also, he published during a ten year period over 100 brief Literary Quotes in The Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, pointing out valuable insights into child development to be found sporadically in the non-scientific literature, starting as early as Dante and Montaigne.
Beside Phi Beta Kappa from Yale, his honors included the American Academy of Pediatrics Aldrich Award in Child Development and its Practitioner Research Award. He was President of the Society for Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 1991-1992. In 1984 he was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences (now known as the National Academy of Medicine) apparently in recognition of his large output of useful published behavioral research performed while in a busy solo primary care pediatric practice.
He was a member of Philadelphia’s literary club, the Franklin Inn, and the Small Point Club in Phippsburg, Maine, where he spent many summer vacation days. Earlier vacation spots had included Pocono Lake Preserve in Pennsylvania, a family house in Portsmouth NH, Martha’s Vineyard, and other locations in Maine.
His chief avocations were music, reading, and gardening. His love of opera was passionate and extensive. An interest in Italian language and culture began in medical school years and led to numerous return trips including lectures in Italian on several pediatric topics in Rome, Padua, Catania, Trieste, and elsewhere.
He was President of the Friends of Wyck, an historical house in Germantown, Philadelphia, where a branch of his mother’s Quaker family had lived since 1690.
He is survived by his three daughters, his brother, Judge John Carey of Rye, NY, and three grandchildren.
A memorial service will be announced at a future date.
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