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Obit from Harvard College –

Psychology Lecturer Goethals Dead at 74

Retired Senior Lecturer of Psychology Dr. George W. Goethals II '43 died in his home Monday after a brief illness. He was 74.

Goethals, a Watertown native, graduated from the College after serving in the army during World War II. He taught high school in Edgartown, Mass, and returned to Harvard to earn his masters and doctorate degrees in education, the Boston Globe reported yesterday.

Goethals taught at Sarah Lawrence College from 1952 to 1956 and joined the Harvard faculty, where he taught in the School of Education, the departments of Social Relations and Psychology and the Extension School from 1956 to 1992.

In the 1970s he became a lecturer on psychology and psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and principal psychologist at Cambridge Hospital. In 1992 he received the Petra Shattuck Teaching Award at the Extension School.

Goethals continued to teach at the Extension School until December, when he became sick and had to be admitted to the hospital.

An avid baseball player, he pitched for a semi-pro baseball team during his years as a graduate student, according to the Globe report.

Goethals was the author of "The Role of Schools in Mental Health" and "Experiencing Youth." His teaching and research focused on adolescents.

— The Harvard Crimson, February 3, 1995