Kenworthy, Marion E. (Marion Edwena), 1891-1980

Professor of psychiatry and psychiatrist, New York, N.Y.

Marion Edwena Kenworthy (1891-1980) was a psychiatrist who specialized in the field of children’s mental health. Kenworthy served as president of the American Psychoanalytic Association, the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, as well as the Academy of Child Psychiatry, and established the psychiatric clinic of the New York City Family Court with Justine Wise Polier and Agnes Inglis. Kenworthy and Sarah H, Swift brought the application of psychiatry into the curriculum of the New York School of Social Work where Kenworthy was a professor from 1921-1956. During WWII Kenworthy served as a doctor in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC) and investigated psychiatric stress. Her legacy continues in the activities of the Marion E. Kenworthy-Sarah H. Swift Foundation in the care of children’s mental and emotional well-being. Notable for the collection here is that on December 18, 1938 she hosted in her home a meeting of individuals, horrified by the news of Kristallnacht, looking for ways to rescue children. Those who met established the Non-Sectarian Committee on German Refugee Children (NSCGRC) in 1938 with the goal of lobbying congress for the admission of refugee children to the United States.

Analyst, Professor of Psychiatry at the Columbia University School of Social Work (The New York School of Social Work), 1921-1956.

Tufts University M.D., 1913; Columbia University Sc.D., 1973.