Mary Rita Crittenden, Ph.D.
April 6, 1928 – March 28, 2015
A devoted wife, mother, grandmother, and greatgrandmother, Dr. Mary Rita Crittenden passed away peacefully in the company of family on March 28, 2015, at home in Palo Alto. She was 86 years old.
Mary Rita was born in Binghamton, N.Y. on April 6, 1928. After graduating high school, she traveled 40 miles west to her beloved Cornell University, where she majored in psychology and also studied theater. Following graduation in 1950, she headed west to obtain her master’s degree in psychology at Mills College in Oakland.
Her Bay Area adventure finished for the moment, Mary Rita returned east in 1952 to begin work as a school psychologist in Rochester, N.Y. There she met her wonderful future husband, Rod Crittenden. They married in August 1955 in Rochester and for their honeymoon drove to California, where she had a job awaiting her – and never left.
They ultimately settled in San Francisco’s Parkmerced community and soon welcomed a son, John, followed by daughters Anne and Jean. Mary Rita was a loving wife and mother, and instilled in her children a love of learning as she shared with great enthusiasm the joy of their every new discovery.
In 1964 Mary Rita returned to work as a psychologist for the San Francisco Unified School District, and in 1968 she began a long and notable career at the University of California, San Francisco. She received her Ph.D. from the California School of Professional Psychology in 1977, and at UCSF rose through the ranks of the clinical professor series to become Chief Psychologist in Adolescent Medicine and Professor of Clinical Pediatrics until she retired in 2003.
Mary Rita was valued and beloved by her colleagues at UCSF as well as those whose children she helped. Wise and prescient, in the late 1970s she advised families and students that neurological development does not stop at adolescence but continues into the mid-20s. It was another 30 years before neuroscientists and MRI technology could confirm what she knew from her own observations all along.
She loved the theater, butterflies, the warm and fragrant air of Hawaii, the view of the sun going down over Lake Merced from her living room chair in her Lakeshore home. But most of all she loved her family. As grandchildren arrived, she marveled at every step of their development and took great pride in their achievements. And they loved her back. When any of them had exciting news, it was always “I have to tell Nana!”
In 2005 Mary Rita and Rod left their home in the City for the Vi senior community in Palo Alto. Over the next ten years they shared many wonderful experiences, traveling on ships to many exotic destinations, taking day trips to special Bay Area locations, experiencing the performing arts, and most of all, enjoying their mutual companionship.
Mary Rita is survived by Rod, her husband of nearly 60 years, children John Crittenden, Anne Dickson, and Jean McDevitt, grandchildren Joseph Crittenden, Katherine Crittenden, Gordon Dickson, Sean Dickson, Kenneth McDevitt, Kellen McDevitt, Lauren McDevitt, and great-granddaughter Holly Crittenden (daughter of Katherine).
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that Mary Rita’s memory be honored by donations to The Mary Rita Crittenden Fund for Behavioral Science Research, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco.
A Mass in memory of Mary Rita will be held on at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 13, at the Church of the Nativity, 210 Oak Grove Avenue, Menlo Park. Reception to follow.