JOHN C. RACY
1932 ~ 2022
We announce with heavy hearts the departure from this world of JOHN CECIL RACY, MD, of Tucson, Arizona, on September 14th. Only a few months after celebrating his 90th birthday, the dark cloud of a sudden aggressive illness took his light and warmth from us. He was so full of lively ideas and interests. As his daughter Wendy said, “Despite his years, Dad never got old”. It was not his time to go.
Yet, we also celebrate John’s extraordinary life — one of civility and compassion, of wit and intellect. A loving and generous father, brother, and husband, a kind and gentle man as well a brilliant and respected educator and psychiatrist, John sought harmony and reconciliation in his relationships, personal and professional.
Born in 1932 to Lebanese parents in Manchester, England, John grew up in Beirut in a close-knit family where he was encouraged to cultivate the mind. He once observed, “I have been teaching ever since I could speak and remember that I was an intellectual and personal guide to my peers in school, starting in first grade”. Primary and secondary education at the International College in Beirut were followed by higher education at the American University of Beirut (AUB) and the attainment of a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1952 and a Doctor of Medicine degree with Distinction in 1956. During medical school John considered a variety of specialties, including biochemistry, internal medicine, and obstetrics & gynecology, but ultimately came back to what he described as his initial love, psychiatry — the field that seemed to fit his temperament and interest in humanities.
Residency and fellowship training in Child and Liaison Psychiatry followed at the University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry (UR) from 1956 to 1960. During a return to AUB, John founded the first Psychiatry program at the Medical Center. By 1966 John was back at UR as an Assistant Professor, with certification from the American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology in 1975. That same year he married Elizabeth Ann Ward, MD. In 1978 he moved to Arizona as a full Professor (and, later, Emeritus Professor) of Psychiatry and Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at the University of Arizona College of Medicine in Tucson.
John served as the Director of Medical Student Education for more than thirty years and won numerous awards and honors for excellence in medical student education, including Training Director’s Award for Outstanding Contribution to Residency Education, Humanism in Medicine, Dean’s List for Excellence in Teaching (in both Basic and Clinical Sciences), Gold-Headed Cane Award, and Recognition Award For Ongoing Dedication to Students — all at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. He also received the Howard E. Wulsin Excellence in Teaching Award from the Arizona Psychiatric Society, and from the American Psychiatric Association he received the Nancy C.A. Roeske, M.D., Certificate of Recognition for Excellence in Medical Student Education, and was recognized by that organization as a Distinguished Life Fellow.
A prolific contributor to the world of academic literature, John wrote dozens of articles, reviews, abstracts, and book chapters as well as publishing Psychiatry in the Arab East in 1970 and Psychotherapy with the Arab Patient in 1999. He gave more than three hundred lectures and media presentations where he was either interviewed about his insights or shared them at numerous venues on subjects ranging from anxiety and depression to care-giving and suicide prevention, from aggressive driving to terrorism, from physician burn-out to the challenges of inter-faith marriage, from holiday stress to conflicts in the Middle East, from aging to menopause and the best medicine of all — laughter. John was never without a smile. (Or a witty anecdote. He loved puns.)
All-told, John taught, inspired, and impressed the hell out of more than four thousand medical students and residents — countless numbers of whom years and even decades later speak of him with great fondness and reverence. (The same can be said of his patients, many of whom have expressed that he saved their lives, and by extension the lives of their friends and relatives.) As an associate put it, “I could never have found or had a better colleague, partner, and friend. I will miss him forever”.
John’s professional interests were in medical student education, couples therapy, family therapy, and social and transcultural psychiatry, especially of the Middle East. He firmly believed that “Realistic medicine is the art of the possible” and was never ensnared by the grandiosity of ego nor would he ever belittle the seemingly trivial pre-occupations of others. As a teacher-physician, John always enjoyed seeing patients. He must have, for he did so for more than six decades. Said John, “I love to talk and to listen. I am fascinated by that which is uniquely human”.
John once described himself as an “ardent music lover”. This is an understatement of considerable magnitude: John was truly passionate and knowledgeable about music (especially Opera and Classical) and his library of LPs and CDs easily exceeded 10,000 titles. He was featured in an article appearing in the Arizona Daily Star in 2001 about a musical mystery contest on KUAT-FM’s classical music station. And John even incorporated his love of music into a keynote speech he delivered at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Class of 1990 Convocation where he referred to 19th century French composer Ambroise Thomas thusly: “He lived an honest life and left an honest legacy”. We can say the same of our dear, sweet John whose benevolence, intelligence, and integrity represented what is best in men.
Although he never felt he had the time for it, John loved to read, especially history, and he and his wife Ann also enjoyed traveling. In recent years they visited countries in the United Kingdom, Scandinavia, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, in addition to Austria, France, Germany, Croatia, Italy, Turkey, Greece, and many locations in the United States — all reflecting his profound interests in the diversity of world cultures. He was an erudite and respectful world traveler who appreciated beauty and artistry wherever it was manifest.
John leaves behind his wife Ann, daughter Wendy and her husband Shawn, son Michael and his wife Michal and their son John Michael, daughter Sumayya and her husband John-Robert and their daughter Ann and son John-Robert, brother Anis and his wife Ann and their son Eric and his SO Angela and daughter Layla and her husband Daisuke and their son Yuno, and brother-in-law Paul and his sons Lucas and Marc. John is also survived by belovèd cousins and friends in the USA, England, and Lebanon. John was preceded in death by his father Munah, mother Sumayya, and sister Theodora.
Beloved by his children (all of whom achieved advanced degrees or professional recognition and success in their chosen fields) and his grand-children and nieces and nephews, John inspired everyone who ever knew him to endeavor to be their best and to seek satisfaction in life.
John retired at age 90 in 2022 yet was denied the years ahead of him but for the illness that took his life. As John once wrote, “Time is our most precious asset”. Our world is darker for the absence of John Racy. Please honor his legacy by adding your light to the sum of light.
Charitable contributions in John’s name would be most appreciated in care of KUAT-FM.