[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 112 (Thursday, July 23, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8032-S8033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        REMEMBERING KEN GORELICK

 Mr. LAUTENBERG. Mr. President, on June 8, 2009, a brilliant 
physician, humanitarian, intellectual and caring person passed away. I 
knew Ken Gorelick and his extended family for almost 50 years and fully 
believe that more physicians like him would make health care more 
effective for many. With all of his intelligence he had a unique belief 
that his principal responsibility was to devote as much energy as he 
could muster to help those who needed professional care recover from 
their illnesses. He was daring in his choices of treatment for his 
patients always searching to reach beyond conventional methodology for 
the best outcome.
  To commemorate his life I ask that a eulogy which was prepared for 
his funeral be printed in the Record. It so fully describes the unusual 
character of this great human being who will be missed by all who had 
the privilege of knowing him.
  The eulogy follows:

                      Kenneth Paul Gorelick, M.D.

       Psychiatrist, essayist, poet, and leading poetry therapist 
     Dr. Kenneth Paul ``Joshua'' Gorelick has left us and this 
     world, after two years of valiant efforts to overcome brain 
     cancer. He was 67.
       When recently asked why he had chosen psychiatry as a 
     career and life pursuit, Ken responded that he had been 
     fascinated by psychology's promise of a ``way to understand 
     the invisible parts of life'' and ``to understand life 
     stories.'' This great fascination was driven by Ken's 
     intrinsic love of life and people and the human narrative, 
     which, in turn, propelled him on the lifelong journey of an 
     insatiable learner, an inspired teacher, and a caring doctor. 
     He read widely and avidly; he relished the arts and supported 
     them; he wrote extensively, both prose and poetry; he 
     instructed and lectured; he ministered to those in need and 
     healed those he could. Ken possessed that rare Renaissance 
     mind that brought a rich and textured approach to his daily 
     life, his practice as a psychiatrist, and his teaching of 
     psychiatry at St. Elizabeth's Hospital and George Washington 
     University (GWU), where he was awarded Professor Emeritus 
     status, and numerous national and international conferences. 
     Yet, throughout his life of great academic and professional 
     pursuits and accomplishments, he never stopped his joyful 
     appreciation and examination of human behavior and the human 
     condition, and he never stopped attempting to improve that 
     condition through is work and his daily interactions with 
     others.
       Born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, the son of Russian 
     Jewish immigrant parents, Ken was inspired to become a doctor 
     early on. When he was four, his father had a heart attack and 
     the daily doctor visits left an indelible impression. A 
     favorite story of his recalls the compliment he received 
     early in his training from a medical school professor for 
     conducting a skillful psychiatric interview. He explained 
     that he had asked just what he had learned to ask customers 
     during his childhood in Gorelick's Bakery, ``How may I help 
     you?''
       Ken's academic life testified to his fervent desire for 
     learning and understanding. He was first in his class at 
     Montclair Academy (New Jersey) and at Rutgers College. He was 
     awarded the Phi Beta Kappa Prize, as well as General 
     Electric, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Henry Rutgers 
     scholarships, and he graduated summa cum laude. Accepted at 
     Columbia, Yale and Harvard Medical Schools, Ken chose instead 
     to accept a Fulbright scholarship to Bordeaux in order to 
     research French literature and study French language, 
     continuing what had by then become a lifelong passion for the 
     beauty and power of the written and sounded word.
       Again applying to Harvard, Ken was accepted, and he then 
     graduated in 1967. After his medical internship at Mount Zion 
     Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco, he returned to 
     Harvard in 1968, completing his residence in 1971 at the 
     Massachusetts Mental Health Center. During this period, he 
     also served on the Harvard University faculty as Clinical 
     Instructor in psychiatry.
       At St. Elizabeth's, the first Federal mental health 
     facility, Ken was an expert in the Hospital's history. He 
     gave numerous lectures and keynoted the St. Elizabeth's 150th 
     Anniversary celebration in 2005. He was a founder of the 
     Historical Museum. Ken was deeply moved and inspired by 
     founder Dorothea Dix's commitment to ``the most humane care 
     and enlightened curative treatment.'' Ken brought this 
     commitment to his private practice and hospital work, 
     encouraged a patient enterprise program, and led DC 
     Council members and others on a visit to Bethel, Germany 
     to see model humane treatment of patients.
       Ken was a noted pioneer and widely respected leader in the 
     use of literature in the field of psychotherapy, particularly 
     poetry therapy, serving on the executive boards of the 
     National Federation for Biblio/Poetry Therapy, as president 
     of the National Association for Poetry Therapy, and on the 
     National Council of Creative Therapies. In recognition of his 
     many contributions to the field, he received the Outstanding 
     Achievement Award and the Morris Morrison Education Award in 
     2004. With colleague Arleen Hynes, he established the first 
     standardized training curriculum for poetry therapy, founded 
     the Bibliotherapy Training Program at St. Elizabeths, and 
     served as its co-director and clinical supervisor, training 
     hospital staff and community mental health professionals in 
     the use of poetry and other literature in the treatment of 
     hospitalized patients with severe and persistent mental 
     illness. From 1993 to 2007, he co-directed the Wordsworth 
     Center for Poetry Therapy Training.
       A much sought-after speaker and workshop leader, Ken 
     presented workshops, seminars, and Grand Rounds lectures 
     nationally and internationally at hospitals, universities, 
     and organizational meetings. His articles on mental health, 
     psychopathology, and literature were published in the 
     American

[[Page S8033]]

     Journal of Social Psychiatry, Arts in Psychotherapy, Journal 
     of Poetry Therapy, and Expressive Therapies, to name just a 
     few of the many publications he contributed to over his 
     lifetime. In fact, Ken's contributions as a speaker, writer, 
     organizer, editor, advisor, and leader were extremely 
     numerous and a testament to a man who had amazing erudition 
     and energy.
       Ken was also an exceptionally generous mentor and colleague 
     and friend, who readily shared his resources, ideas, time, 
     and energy to educate and empower. He had a superb sense of 
     humor and a laugh that was unrestrained and utterly gleeful, 
     and he had the endearing ability to bring smiles and laughter 
     to other people, no matter how difficult their circumstances. 
     His voice's melodic, pleasant lilt communicated a special 
     combination of maturity and caring and welcome that 
     immediately put people at ease, disarming them, and opening 
     them up to the possibilities of life. He possessed deep 
     wisdom and insight into human nature, and he showed 
     exceptional levels of kindness, compassion, and gentleness 
     toward those who are most vulnerable and in need of care. 
     And, despite his intellectual brilliance and considerable 
     professional accomplishments, he had that rare gift to make 
     all those he encountered feel respected and worthy.
       Never once did Ken Gorelick lose his appreciation of what 
     is essential: each single day, each single person. In an 
     article after a childhood of fear-defying, successful scuba-
     diving experience, he wrote: ``This day, like every day, has 
     had something to celebrate. And to be grateful for,'' and he 
     went on to quote William Stafford's lines, ``Will you ever 
     bring a better gift for the world/than the breathing respect 
     that you carry/wherever you go right now?''
       He valued each moment and each person around him. In his 
     touching eulogy for his beloved friend and mentor, Arleen 
     Hynes, Ken praised what he deemed as her superb talent 
     of ``finding the dazzling part of each person, and letting 
     that person know she saw it.'' Ken, too, had that talent 
     and used it to its fullest.
       There can be no greater example of Ken's sacred, lifelong 
     commitment to serve humanity and his immeasurable generosity 
     of spirit than how he used his own life-threatening brain 
     cancer diagnosis as a powerful means to teach his students, 
     future doctors, the power of human empathy. He openly shared 
     with them how this diagnosis feels to a patient, allowing 
     them to question, sharing his story of how he was treated by 
     doctors, and, through this intimate personal revelation, he 
     taught them how necessary it is to have genuine empathy and 
     what this means to the patient. He taught them the great 
     power of the simple words, ``I'm sorry.'' In Leslie Milk's 
     interview with Ken which is transcribed in her article ``The 
     Doctor as Patient,'' Washingtonian, May 2009, Ken disclosed 
     his story of coping with his brain cancer diagnosis, his 
     awareness of its typical course, his experience with the 
     medical community and the limited status of research, and, so 
     typical of Ken, his determination to enjoy life's riches. He 
     again underscored the value of a doctor's simple ``I'm 
     sorry.''
       Ken continued, to the very last, to teach medical students 
     and residents to use the power of literature, the words that 
     tell the story of humanity, in their endeavors to help 
     others. He believed in the connection of all people through 
     all time and how that connection can be accessed in the 
     stories, great and small, of each and every person. And, in 
     the end, he even offered the story of his own experience with 
     terminal illness to encourage them to always make the human 
     connection.
       A poem--written after the first surgery to remove the brain 
     tumor--shares some of his deepest reflections: ``I feel my 
     life has been right . . . I put into each act more thought 
     and mindfulness . . . The trees have been challenged by 
     dryness and lack of cold/ Out of this dearth has come such 
     beauty/ Still clinging with all its tenacity.''
       Ken's immense joy of being alive and his savoring of each 
     moment of life are reflected in his verses and are echoed by 
     two of his favorite poets, Stanley Kunitz and Mary Oliver. 
     Kunitz wrote in his poem ``The Round'': ``I can scarcely wait 
     till tomorrow/ when a new life begins for me,/ as it does 
     each day,/ as it does each day.'' And Oliver wrote in her 
     poem ``Peonies'': ``Do you love this world?/ Do you cherish 
     your humble and silky life?/ Do you adore the green grass, 
     with its terror beneath?'' Ken's answer, our answer with him, 
     is ``Yes! Forever!''
       Ken's passing is a great sad event which is for us a time 
     to feel not only the deep loss of a man who gave so much to 
     all, but also the joyful celebration that he lived, a man 
     whose spirit and actions will continue to influence the many 
     people he touched during his time on earth.
       Dr. Gorelick is survived by his beloved wife, Cheryl 
     Opacinch Gorelick, a retired international policy analyst; a 
     sister and brother-in-law, Arlene and Joseph Taub of New 
     Jersey; a niece and nephew, Michelle Taub Tesser and Scott 
     Tesser; and Marc Taub and Karen Taub, great-nieces and great-
     nephews, other relatives, friends and colleagues.

     Looking back I feel my life has been right
     No second-guessing that this or that might have been better,
     No ache that I might have climbed higher mountains.

     I am in a generous leisurely mood with myself
     Filled with gratitude and awe for what has been,
     The gifts, the luck, the love.

     My hunger now is different.
     I put into each act more thought and mindfulness.
     Eventually the true cliches come to pass: like ``living in 
           the moment.''

     Time has slowed to a crawl.
     That is a good thing.
     Every grain counts as it drops
     My being, my spirit are pulled by gravity.
     And they soar.

     Moment to moment I try to solve, ignore, or transcend the 
           frustrations
     My big eye on the big picture.
     And that picture is beautiful.

     This fall foliage has not been spectacular.
     But here, at my back door, there is a city forest
     No flaming colors
     Yet the palette is subtle and exquisite
     A harmony of golds, greens, rusts.

     The trees have been challenged by dryness
     And lack of cold
     Out of this dearth has come such beauty
     Still clinging with all its tenacity

     --Ken Gorelick 11/14/07

                          ____________________