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On 6 July 2016 we lost a valued member of our psychoanalytic community. Klaus died as he lived, with enthusiasm; an active person enjoying one of his many passions. This time he was sailing with family on Lac Saint Louis when he suffered a major stroke from which he did not recover. Only a few days before, he had bicycled to his office, where he continued to treat children and their families.
Klaus was born in Leipzig, Germany, and lived there during and after the Second World War. Because of his and his brother's musical talents, they were sheltered from some of the deprivations of that era. He and his brother were both members of the elite Saint Thomas choir. Klaus continued his love of music in playing his piano and in singing in a choir. His brother became a symphony orchestra conductor, whereas Klaus became a conductor of a different kind.
After studying medicine in Munich he came to New York on a Fulbright Scholarship, where he pursued training in pediatrics and studies in psychology. This led him to McGill University, where he trained in psychiatry, specializing in child psychiatry. Regarding the latter, he was profoundly influenced by the ideas of Irwin Disher, who had just returned from London and psychoanalytic training with, among others, Donald Winnicott. The importance of early life influences on the developing infant became a major theme of Klaus's continuing work in infant psychiatry. Following a sabbatical spent with John Bowlby in London and Albert Solnit at Yale, Klaus and his wife Nina wrote the first textbook on infant psychiatry in 1986. Together, they had also experienced the premature birth of one of their three sons, which led to further publications on the impact of prematurity on parenting and on families. Klaus's many academic positions