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Publication Date: Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Obituaries
Obituaries
(August 18, 2004)
William Kennett
Physician and surgeon
Dr. William Kennett of Atherton, a physician who delivered thousands of babies during his 40-year career, died August 6 after a brief illness. He was 86.
Dr. Kennett, born in Carson City, Nevada, came from a long line of doctors, dating back before the Revolutionary War, family members said.
He graduated from UC Berkeley in 1940 and earned a medical degree from Loyola University in Chicago in 1943.
During World War II, he served as a medical officer aboard submarines in the Pacific. After the war, he was stationed in Panama and took part in one of Admiral Richard Byrd's expeditions to the Antarctic.
In 1947, he entered Stanford Medical School in San Francisco for specialty training in obstetrics and gynecology. In 1951 he started private practice in Redwood City. When he retired in 1993, he received more than 500 letters thanking him for the care he provided.
Dr. Kennett was a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology, a fellow in the American College of Surgeons, and a fellow in the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
He was a board member of the Sequoia Hospital Foundation, where he founded a golf tournament and gala that raised more than $1 million for the hospital.
Dr. Kennett was a member of the Sharon Heights Golf and Country Club, the Menlo Circus Club, and the Stanford Golf Club. He loved traveling and golf, and was an avid Stanford alumni supporter of golf, football, basketball and baseball, said family members.
He is survived by his wife Gloria of the family home in Atherton, and by three daughters: Katharine Stevens of Turlock, Carol Douglass of Reno and Dr. Celia Hull of French Gulch (Shasta County). He is also survived by three stepchildren, Daniel and Kenneth Tehaney of Redwood City and Lori Teel of Los Gatos; 12 grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Services have been held. The family prefers donations to the Sequoia Hospital Foundation, 170 Alameda de las Pulgas, Redwood City 94062 or the Peninsula Volunteers, Inc., 800 Middle Ave., Menlo Park 94025.
Theron Alexander
Psychologist and author
A memorial service and reception will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, August 19, at Valley Presbyterian Church, 945 Portola Road, Portola Valley, for Theron Alexander of Atherton, who died August 11 at Stanford Hospital following a lengthy illness. He was 90.
Dr. Alexander, a former visiting scholar at Stanford's Hoover Institution, was an internationally known behavioral scientist and developmental/clinical psychologist who wrote several books and numerous white papers and scholarly articles.
His last book was "A Better Childhood," published in 2001, which espoused an opinion based on extensive research that physical discipline upon young children is often the cause of serious emotional problems later in life.
Dr. Alexander was born in Springfield, Tennessee, the son of Theron and Mary Jones Alexander. He married Marie Bailey in 1936 and obtained a bachelor's degree from Maryville College and a master's degree from the University of Tennessee in the 1930s.
He did post-graduate work at Harvard and Princeton in the 1940s and began his career after receiving his doctorate from the University of Chicago in 1949.
During Word War II, he served as a U.S. Navy Reserve staff officer in the Pacific.
During his long career, Dr. Alexander held faculty positions at several major universities, including Florida State University, the University of Iowa, the University of Miami, and Temple University. He also had his own practice, Alexander & Associates, in the 1980s.
Dr. Alexander performed human development research for the governments of a number of foreign countries, including Holland, France, Switzerland, Italy, the former Yugoslavia, Germany, Great Britain, Sweden, and Denmark. In 1972, he spent a year traveling and writing in England while on study leave from Temple University, and in 1974, he took a study tour of the Soviet Union.
Other books authored by Dr. Alexander include "Psychotherapy in Our Society" (1963), "Children and Adolescents" (1969), and "Human Development in an Urban Age" (1973).
His list of professional affiliations and awards is lengthy. Dr. Alexander was a distinguished fellow in the American Psychological Association, a charter fellow of the American Psychological Society, and a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Alexander and his family have been active members of Valley Presbyterian Church for many years. He and his wife, Marie, enjoyed taking walks in Atherton's Holbrook-Palmer Park, family members said. They were married for nearly 69 years.
Dr. Alexander is survived by his wife, Marie Bailey Alexander; a daughter, Mary E. Alexander of Atherton; a son, Thomas Theron Alexander of New Jersey; a granddaughter; and two great-grandchildren.
The family prefers that memorials be in the form of gifts in Dr. Alexander's name to Valley Presbyterian Church, 945 Portola Road, Portola Valley, CA 94028.
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