Alvin Pam

Alvin Pam ("Al") (12/13/1934 to 9/27/2026) was the oldest of 4 children born to Simon Pam and Bertha Fields. He is survived by his three younger siblings: Eleanor, Jeffrey, and Robert. Al spent his childhood in Brooklyn, where he loved watching the Dodgers play and especially loved the "grass" fields. He and his sister (Eleanor) also loved staying up well past bedtime, while his father taught them how to listen to the news-filtering out the truth, while rejecting what he saw as the many "untruths" on the radio and in the classroom. Al claimed that this routine "shaped my personality, making me skeptical, iconoclastic, and somewhat obnoxious." In subsequent years, he tended to struggle with getting up for school, having stayed up late researching class material and developing his own views for later discussion or "debate."

Al graduated from Brooklyn College with a BA in History. Within a year, he was drafted into the army to serve in Korea, where he calculated the firing trajectory of heavy artillery. Following discharge, he enrolled in New York University, where he finished his master's degree in Modern European History. He taught high school for some years, then completely changed course, hitchhiking and riding the rails in an empty boxcar to reconnect with his old army buddy, Ramon Villareal Silva, in New Mexico. They toured the country in Ramon's beat-up old Ford, foraging as vagrants until the car finally gave out, and then boarded a freighter to Europe. After some months, they boarded a second freighter to Israel, where they worked on a kibbutz. Eventually, however, Al returned home alone after a failed romance compelled him to more deeply examine his life and choices.

Al subsequently switched his academic interest to psychology and enrolled at the State University of New York in Buffalo, where he earned his masters' degree (1964) followed by a PhD in Clinical Psychology (1970).

In 1964, Al joined a thousand college students participating in the "Mississippi Freedom Summer," under the guidance of Martin Luther King Jr. Following this life-changing experience, Al returned north to lead a civil rights group in Buffalo while earning his PhD. He married Marilyn Rapley, his first wife, who led a nearby civil rights chapter at Buffalo State University. They are survived by two children (Aaron Pam and Simone Handfield) and three grandchildren (William, Griffin and Sarah Handfield).

Al worked 33 years as a Supervising Psychologist at Bronx Psychiatric Center (1968 to 2001). During those years, he also taught as an adjunct professor at Bronx Community College and maintained a part-time private practice in clinical psychology. He also met and married his second wife, Susan Kemker, who survives him along with their son, Joshua Pam. After retiring from Bronx Psychiatric Center in 2001, Al continued practicing clinical psychology through November 2025.

Al was a passionate scholar-scrutinizing the literature in a chosen field (whether Psychology, History, Politics, or Sociology), then challenging much of the prevailing wisdom of his time. All four of his books (Pseudoscience in Biological Psychiatry; Splitting Up: Enmeshment and Estrangement in the Process of Divorce; When Black Panthers Prowled Amerika; and Go to Your God Like a Soldier) are characterized by meticulous study, often shining fresh light on the dark side of history, culture, attitudes and approaches to mental illness.

As a Psychologist and Mentor, Al was devoted to helping both patients and emerging therapists find and address "where the suffering was coming from." He was well-known for his clinical formulations-the "stories" of emotional pain and the behaviors that followed. He helped so many of us look clear-eyed at ourselves and our lives-warts and all-without the usual self-contempt or resentment. Just a bit of humor, Al-style.

As a father, son, husband and brother, Al was generous, loyal and forthcoming-showing his love with lots of hard work. Always committed, always honest, occasionally tone-deaf. Brilliant at times regarding politics, human nature or history. Pretty darn good at chess though almost never able to beat his father. Unable to handle a dishwasher or microwave. More human than otherwise.

Al loved to run until he had to walk. He ran and walked two full Marathons-one not long after insertion of a pacemaker. He ran in all kinds of weather, returning home covered in sweat, rain, snow, or all three. He lived how he ran, persevering through childhood polio, two heart surgeries, multiple pacemakers, two sudden deaths, a massive pulmonary embolus, gout, kidney stones and congestive heart failure. He lived his life fully and was fully himself, for as long as his life would run.