The following was in the first page of the program book
for the conference at the NCADD-Maryland Tuerk Conference:©
Isadore Tuerk, a psychiatrist who served as Maryland's
Mental Health Commissioner for eight years, died of heart failure at the age
of 81 on February 26, 1989. A native of Baltimore, Dr. Tuerk oversaw the
state's mental hospital system from 1960 to 1968 before leaving public
service, and continued practicing psychiatry and teaching at the University
of Maryland and Johns Hopkins medical schools.
Dr. Tuerk grew up in the neighborhood around the School
of Medicine, and first came into contract with the school as a child when he
delivered clothes made by his tailor father. A 1924 graduate of Baltimore
City College, Dr. Tuerk completed undergraduate studies at Hopkins and
received his medical degree from the University of Maryland in 1934. He
served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a division psychiatrist in
the European Theatre, was awarded a bronze star and was discharged in 1946
as a lieutenant colonel.
As a public servant, he fought for more dollars for the
state's mental hospitals and pioneered group therapy techniques for
alcoholics. All were welcome to the Saturday morning sessions he launched
at Spring Grove State mental Hospital where he became a staff psychiatrist
in 1939 and superintendent 10 years later. Even street people sometimes
showed up for the sessions. His son Jonathan recollected that Dr. Tuerk
only once threw someone out of the sessions - a man who came in with a
bottle of whiskey. "It was the only time he ever kicked somebody out of the
group and years later he kept asking whether that was the right thing to
do."
Dr. Tuerk was an honorary member of the Maryland
Society on Alcoholism Treatment and was named its Man of the Year in 1957.
Tuerk House, an alcoholic treatment center, formerly a University of
Maryland drug and alcohol abuse treatment center, was named in his honor in
1970. He retired in 1986.
A loyal member of the Medical Alumni Association, Dr.
Tuerk received the Gold Key and Honor Award in 1981. He was a faithful
caller in the Annual Phonothon, spreading his enthusiasm to the other
participants. In 1987, he received the Medical Alumni Association Service
Award for having contributed the most time making Phonothon calls. In
November 1988, he was disappointed that his health prevented him from taking
part. He was loved and admired by all those whose lives he touched. The
Alumni office staff remembers him as soft spoken, warm and caring.
NCADD-Maryland Tuerk Conference:©
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