Surry
James Campbell Pearson (Jim), 89, of Surry, died peacefully at home on Sunday, Sept. 6, 2020. Jim spent his life caring for others, as an adolescent psychiatrist and as a family and community member. He was greatly loved and will be missed by his family, friends and former colleagues.
Born in Seattle, Wash., Dec. 26, 1930, he was the son of the late Conrad Alexander and Margaret Caughey Pearson. Jim met his wife, Janet Spencer Pearson, while at the University of Washington Medical School, where he also received his undergraduate degree.
Jim and Janet raised their family in Wynnewood, Pa., after Jim’s psychiatric residency and military service in the Army. He was the senior psychiatrist for the Devereux Schools and had a full-time private practice. He was also a founding director of the Child Guidance Clinic, clinical assistant professor at Hahnemann Medical College and co-founder and director of the Institute for Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy in Philadelphia.
The family spent summers in Maine in a staff cabin on Embden Pond at Devereux School’s residential summer camp. Jim and Jan retired to Surry, in part to take care of Janet’s late mother, Edna Spencer. Jim loved gardening, creating new rhododendron species in his basement and a dwarf conifer garden at his home in Surry. He read constantly and played competitive croquet after retirement. He lived his life with integrity, intentionality and was a good listener with a dry sense of humor.
Survivors include his wife, Janet Spencer Pearson; his children (and families): Spencer, Karen (Kim, Hadrian, Chelsea, Eric), Susan, Lisa (Sadie); and his sister Peggy Pearson McGaffey.