The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Mourns the Passing of Dr. Paula Clayton
September 14, 2021 – 4 min read
By Robert Gebbia, AFSP Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Clayton served as AFSP’s Chief Medical Officer from 2006 to 2013 and was instrumental in helping to expand AFSP’s suicide prevention research and its educational programs. She worked closely with AFSP’s scientific community, as well as its growing network of chapters across the country to increase their suicide prevention skills and effectiveness.
Dr. Clayton joined AFSP after a distinguished career in psychiatry, which included serving as the Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota for over two decades. Dr. Clayton has the distinction of being a true pioneer for women in medicine after being admitted to medical school in 1956 when women comprised less than 3% of medical students. She went on to have a distinguished clinical and research career focused on mood disorders and bereavement and became the first woman in the U.S. to chair a major academic department of psychiatry.
Among her many accomplishments while CMO at AFSP, was her leadership in developing AFSP’s first school-based educational program, More Than Sad and establishing AFSP’s collaboration with the International Academy for Suicide Research (IASR), which led to the bi-annual AFSP/ IASR International Suicide Research Summit.
Dr. Clayton’s expertise, drive and passion for preventing suicide was unparalleled and her work as Chief Medical Officer advanced AFSP’s mission and saved lives.
Dr. Clayton will be missed.
Please see below for Dr. Clayton's obituary. An additional obituary is also available from The New York Times and the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
Dr. Paula Jean Clayton
December 1, 1934 – September 4, 2021
Dr. Paula Jean Clayton, 86, passed away peacefully surrounded by loved ones on September 4, 2021, joining her beloved parents, Dorothea Pflasterer and Oscar Limberg, and sisters, Betty Cisco and Dorothy Wolfgram. Paula was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri. She graduated from the University of Michigan in 1956 and fulfilled her ambition to become a doctor when she graduated from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 1960. She did her psychiatric residency there and joined the faculty in 1965, becoming a full professor in 1976. During her fifteen-year tenure at Washington University, she achieved international recognition for her leading-edge research on mood disorders and bereavement. She was the first to define mania and schizoaffective disorders and in 1969 she co-authored, with her colleague Dr. Theodore Reich and mentor, Dr. George Winokur, a groundbreaking textbook on mania entitled Manic Depressive Illness.
During this busy time, Paula proved herself very capable of balancing medical school and her career, marrying Charles Clayton and having three children, Clarissa, Matthew and Andrew, the first of whom was born while she was still in medical school. She was a loving and devoted mother, who provided an early example of how a woman could be a successful professional and wonderful mother at the same time.
In 1980, Paula again became an inspirational rode model for women in medicine when she became the first woman in the United States to chair a department of psychiatry, joining the University of Minnesota School of Medicine. She was also the first woman chairperson at UMN Medical School, a role in which she served until 1999. She subsequently moved to Santa Fe and was a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine from 2001 to 2005.
In 2006, Paula moved to New York City to become the Medical Director of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, where she oversaw grant funding and educational projects for both professionals and the public, including the production of several educational films about suicide that were aired nationwide. During the eight years she served in this position, she embraced New York City life, enjoying walking to work, seeing live theater every weekend and taking the subway to explore the city.
Throughout her career, Paula remained committed to advancing the field of psychiatry, conducting research, teaching students and residents, mentoring young doctors, and seeing patients, many of whom became her friends. She published three additional books, including The Medical Basis of Psychiatry (now in its fourth edition), more than 180 papers and 20 book chapters. She was a member of many editorial boards and psychiatric societies, and has served at the National Institute of Mental Health, as well as on many governmental and non-governmental committees. She received the Athena Award from the University of Michigan and the Distinguished Alumnae Award from Washington University in 1985 and the Aphrodite Jannopoulo Hofsommer Award from Washington University in 1993.
Paula was warm and generous, and made many friends in all of the places that she lived over the years, including Pasadena, California where she moved in 2015 to be close to family when she retired. She was a constant participant in the lives of her children and grandchildren, and planned many vacations for them to spend time together. Paula also maintained close ties to her sisters and their families in her hometown of St. Louis and to Washington University, travelling there every few months to visit nieces and nephews and teach seminars at Washington University School of Medicine. Until her passing, Paula was energetic and engaged in all of the things she cherished: family, friends, theater, opera, books, travel, good food, martinis, St. Louis Cardinals baseball, and the reading of The New Yorker from cover to cover.
Paula is survived by her three children, Clarissa Clayton Weirick (Brad), Matthew Clayton, Andrew Clayton (Jojo) and seven grandchildren: Austin Clayton, Andrew Clayton, Catherine Weirick, Clayton Weirick, Madeline Weirick, Sophia Clayton and Chelsea Clayton. She was deeply loved and will be missed by many.
Donations can be made in her memory to the Paula J. Clayton MD Endowment Fund at Washington University in St. Louis, the American Psychopathological Association or the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Memorial services will be held (in person and live streamed) at 2:00 on October 2, 2021 at La Canada Presbyterian Church, 626 Foothill Blvd, La Canada, California and at 1:30 on November 19, 2021 at The Second Presbyterian Church, 4501 Westminster Place, St. Louis, Missouri. All are welcome.