Notes and News

A memorial award of $100 for an outstanding contribution to psychiatry from a public mental institution was announced here by Dr. Harry A. Steckel, former director of Syracuse Psychopathic Hospital, and head of a committee to honor the late Dr. Richard H. Hutchings. The award, in memory of Dr. Hutchings who spent his life in the state hospital field, is from an anonymous donor, Dr. Steckel said, and is presented through Dr. C. Charles Burlingame, psychiatrist-in-chief of the Institute of Living, Hartford, Conn., who is also a member of the Hutchings memorial committee. The award, Dr. Steckel stated, is without restriction as to type of professional achievement and may be made by the memorial committee at a time within its discretion. Scientific articles, reports, or nominations for the award may be submitted to Dr. Steckel or to Dr. Newton Bigelow, director of Marcy State Hospital and secretary-treasurer of the committee.

“The committee is very happy,” Dr. Steckel declared, “to have this opportunity to recognize the contribution of state mental hospitals to the field of psychiatry. Dr. Hutchings himself exemplifies the outstanding part that state institutions have played in scientific progress in the field of mental hygiene.”

The memorial committee, elected by friends and former colleagues of Dr. Hutchings who have set up a fund in his honor, has the primary purpose of sponsoring a series of annual scientific lectures in memory of Dr. Hutchings, who was a clinician, administrator and teacher. Dr. Hutchings, who died in October 1947, was head of St. Lawrence State Hospital and later of Utica State Hospital for many years, and for many years taught psychiatry at Syracuse University College of Medicine. The first of the memorial lectures was given October 3, 1949 at the Syracuse University College of Medicine by Dr. Winfred Overholser, superintendent St. Elizabeth's Hospital, Washington, D. C. His subject was “Modern Trends in P