Richard Abrams, M.D., neuropsychiatrist, husband, father, and grandfather, died peacefully in his sleep on August 27, 2025. He was 88.
Dick, as he liked to be called, had many varied pursuits and passions outside his chosen profession. An avid outdoorsman, he enjoyed thousands of hours of fly fishing and hunting with his beloved dogs. Also an amateur photographer, Dick’s passion for the art form filled his home and those of his family and friends with his evocative images of street festivals, landscapes, and of many people both inside and outside his immediate circle. He was also a lifetime folk musician. His zeal for American, Irish, and Breton folk music led to long-time friendships and fun playing solo and in groups, as well as buying and selling instruments from banjos to tin whistles.
A researcher, teacher, clinician, and editor in the forefront of clinical research assessment of the convulsive therapy process, Dr. Abrams was invited to give lectures and conferences for the present and next generations of his field all over the world. He closed out his distinguished academic career as a professor of psychiatry at the Chicago Medical School. In addition to his contributions to dozens of scholarly articles on ECT in many scientific journals, he was the author and co-author of various books and chapters on the subjects of ECT and schizophrenia, ECT for Parkinson's disease. Dr. Abrams authored Electroconvulsive Therapy, the definitive textbook on ECT. He also had many ECT-related patents to his credit, as the director of Somatics, LLC, a firm that manufactured and distributed the Thymatron ECT device.
Richard Stephen Abrams was born on May 28, 1937, in New York. He grew up in Manhattan, NY, with his parents, Larry and Charlotte (Yaeger), and brother, John. He remained lifelong friends with several students he first met as a youngster at Walden School on the Upper West Side. Dick graduated with a degree of Doctor of Medicine from New York Medical College and finished his residency in Psychiatry at the Metropolitan Hospital Center. He moved from New York to Chicagoland in the mid-1970s, where he later met his beloved wife of 40 years, Trudy (Espinoza). They split their time between their Chicago and Montana homes, along with frequent travel to visit family in France.
In addition to his wife, Dick leaves behind two daughters, Karen and Deirdre Abrams, two stepdaughters, Jessina and Erin Branyan, and six grandchildren. His first wife, Ingrid Hendrickx Deutsch, passed away in 1982.
Arrangements are in the care of Dokken-Nelson Funeral Service. www.dokkennelson.com [dokkennelson.com]
