Psychologist Otfried Spreen

Otfried Spreen, UVic professor emeritus of psychology (neuropsychology), died in Vancouver on Nov. 29, 2015, at the age of 89 years. Spreen played a leading role in establishing the graduate training program in neuropsychology and in running the Psychology Clinic within the Department of Psychology at UVic. He also practiced in a clinical consultation service provided to the neurology and neurosurgery units at the Royal Jubilee Hospital. Spreen played a central role in the development of the Neuropsychology Workshops at UVic that ran from 1965 until 1990, featuring leaders in the field from around the world. He chaired the Department of Psychology from 1971-1973.

Spreen was a native-born German and held a doctorate from Freiberg Univeristy (1952). After moving to Iowa in 1962 to work with Arthur Benton at the Neurosensory Centre at the University of Iowa, he joined the faculty of the Department of Psychology at UVic in 1966. He considered himself a “full range” neuropsychologist (as he stated in his only published autobiography: p. 261, “Pathways and reflections”, in A. Stringer, E. Cooley, & A.-L. Christensen [Eds.], Pathways to Prominence in Neuropsychology: Reflections of Twentieth-Century Pioneers, Psychology Press). He had an impressive impact in neuropsychology throughout the lifespan, in both strictly clinical and experimental work, as he studied a variety of topics from head injuries to the aphasias to child learning disabilities.

Spreen was well-known internationally for his research and contributions to graduate research supervision within the Department of Psychology. He made stellar contributions to the field of neuropsychology more broadly, including authorship of many scholarly articles and now-classic textbooks - among them the highly lauded A Compendium of Neuropsychological Tests (3 editions, with E. Strauss and E. Sherman as co-authors), Contributions to Neuropsychological Assessment: A Clinical Manual (2 editions, with A. Benton, A. Sivan, K. Hamsher and N. Varney as co-authors) and Developmental Neuropsychology (2 editions, with A. Risser, D. Edgell, D. Tupper and H. Tuokko as co-authors), all published by Oxford University Press.

During his career, Spreen received numerous honours and awards for his research. He served as part of an early nucleus of colleagues that helped organize the International Neuropsychological Society, and was one of the early diplomates and supporters of American Board of Clinical Neuropsychology. In 2008, Spreen was honoured for his contributions to the INS at the 36th annual meeting held in Hawaii. Following his retirement from the University of Victoria in 1993, Spreen lived with his wife Georgia (predeceased 2006) in Victoria. B.C. before moving to Maple Ridge, BC to be closer to family. The foundational contributions that Spreen made to the Department of Psychology and UVic will be felt for many more years to come.

—Submitted by Holly Tuokko (Department of Psychology and UVic Centre on Aging) and David E. Tupper (Hennepin County Medical Center and University of Minnesota Medical School).