Walter Penk, PhD, chief of psychology at Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial VA Hospital, Bedford, Mass., has retired after 38 years at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Penk's research and publications covered many subjects relating to health care for veterans, including post-traumatic stress disorder, schizophrenia, substance abuse and vocational rehabilitation.

Penk received his PhD from the University of Houston in 1965, and started work that same year at the VA Medical Center in Dallas, where he remained as a clinical psychologist until 1984. Next, he spent several years at the VA Medical Center in Boston before moving to the Bedford facility. Concurrently, Penk held a variety of research and academic positions, most recently as an affiliate professor at Suffolk University in Boston.

Terrence Keane, PhD, of VA Boston Healthcare, says of his colleague, "A true leader, Walter's infectious enthusiasm will be sorely missed; his talent as a clinician, researcher, teacher and administrator are legend. I, and thousands of patients and psychologists who've had the pleasure of working with Walter over these many years, owe him a debt of gratitude for his professional demeanor and his strength of character."

--M. GREENGRASS