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It is with both sadness and regret that we have to announce that my father, Roy R. Grinker, SR, MD, died May 9th last. It is a relief that he is no longer in discomfort.
Inasmuch as this paper was written just before his death, I shall read it as written then. Please bear with me in connection to the perhaps jarring use of present tense verbs….
I confess I am totally delighted to be here. I stand before you as a psychoanalyst, a student, and as a son. I wish my father, Roy Grinker, Sr., could be here to receive this award himself. But he is almost 93 years old, and totally house-bound. When I told him first that he was to receive this award, he just shrugged. When I asked him to tell me what to say, he said “Tell them nothing!!” When I insisted last week that he tell me what to say to this body, he said “Tell them I don't deserve it!” But I think he does, and so obviously do you.
Others will speak of Roy's professional work, his devotion to psychoanalysis and science, his interest in this organization, being one of the early members, and his devotion to education, his antipathy to “Organized Psychoanalysis,” and his interest in his students and/or disciples. It is of some interest that he has or had two analyst-cousins, Norman A. Levy and Maury Friend, both well-known to many of you.
There must be three groups in this audience: those who never heard of Roy Grinker, those who knew him or read his books and articles — 28 books, 365 articles — and those who knew him personally. I think on this occasion it is appropriate to tell all three of these groups something about Roy Grinker the man, lest