Bridging Academic and Public Worlds

By: Tim Fleischer
 

Dr. Harry Wilmer II, founder of the Institute for the Humanities at Salado, passed away March 13, 2005 at the age of 88. A Jungian analyst, Dr. Wilmer was one of the pioneers of group therapy in North America. He and his wife of 60 years, Jane, called Salado home for more than three decades.

Salado old-timers may remember how Harry would play golf
at Mill Creek, with a fishing pole in his bag just in case he saw a nice
spot to stop along the banks of Salado Creek to fish and sit and reflect.  His quiet sanctuary in the village of Salado led to a prolific career of writing hundreds of papers and articles and 15 books.
 
Dr. Wilmer's quiet impact on the character of the village has spanned
decades in his founding, directing and leading the Institute for
Humanities at Salado, which is in its 25th year of existence.
Yet, Dr. Wilmer had a measurable impact on the field of psychiatry,
beginning in the 1960s.

Dr. Wilmer was responsible for helping introduce the practice of group therapy to North America at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, CA.  His book, Social Psychiatry in Action, was made into the 1961 Emmy-nominated TV docudrama "People Need People."

Dr. Wilmer explored new avenues of prison reform as a consultant to the California state prison system in the mid 1960s. As professor of
Psychiatry at the University of California San Francisco Medical Center, he created the Youth Drug Ward, an innovative group therapy to help the drug casualties of the Haight Ashbury, utilizing the emerging technology of videotape.

Dr. Wilmer moved away from his Freudian roots in the late 1960s to
become a Jungian analyst. He became professor of Psychiatry at the
University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio, where he created one of the first wards for the training of AIDS patient
caregivers, as well as studying the effects of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder in Vietnam veterans, assisting their recovery by listening to
and analyzing the dreams and nightmares that haunted them.

While there, he also founded and directed four annual International Film Festivals that brought in speakers from around the world to discuss medical and human issues. When he retired from the University of Texas, Dr. Wilmer founded the Institute for the Humanities at Salado, bringing together many of the nation's brightest educators, artists and scholars, including many Nobel
laureates, to lecture and conduct workshops.

The Institute symposium on Facing Evil was the basis of a Bill Moyers' PBS program of the same name. Among the speakers coming to Salado to participate in the Institute lecture series during Dr. Wilmer's 17 years as its director are names such as Barbara Jordan, Lee Marvin, Linus Pauling, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, Robert Bly, Rollo May, Maya Angelou, John K. Galbraith, M.  Scott Peck, Liz Carpenter, and Huston Smith.

The Institute for the Humanities gained a national reputation for its
work under the direction of Dr. Wilmer who served as its director for 17 years. Even after his retirement from that position, he was a driving force in its continued success.

Some of his books include: How Dreams Help, Nuts and Bolts of Jungian Psychotherapy, Understandable Jung-The Personal Side of Jungian Psychology, and Huber the Tuber.

Dr. Wilmer graduated from The University of Minnesota, from which he earned BA, MB, Ph.D. and M.D. degrees. He trained in psychiatry at the Mayo Clinic where he was also on the staff. He also has been on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, Stanford, and the University of California, where he was professor of psychiatry before coming to Texas.

He received his Jungian analyst training in Zurich on a Guggenheim
Fellowship. From 1955-57, he served as a Captain in the US. Navy,
assigned to the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland California and the
National Naval Medical Research Institute, in Bethesda, Maryland.

Dr. Wilmer was preceded in death by his sister Melanie Rosenbaum and a son, Harry A. Wilmer III. He is survived by his wife of 60 years, Jane Harris Wilmer and children: John Wilmer, of San Francisco, Tom and Beth Wilmer, of Morro Bay, Calif., Jim and Linda Wilmer, of Seattle, Mary Wilmer Mills, of Los Altos, Calif. and daughter-in-law Lynn Wilmer, of Dallas. He is also survived by five grandchildren and four step grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, donations are requested to be directed to The
Institute for the Humanities at Salado, PO Box 527, Salado, TX 76571.  A public memorial service was held June 4, in Salado.