Social psychologist with connections to Findhorn Foundation, Joe Pearson MBPsS, dies
A SOCIAL psychologist and former US Navy officer from Forres has died, leaving his behind his devoted wife and a legacy of research.
Joe Pearson MBPsS was born in Champagne Urbana, Illinois, USA, on September 9, 1939, initially living on his family farm near Ludlow to the south of Chicago.
The farm was sold after World War II and the family moved near Rantoul. Joe attended school there before studying a pre-medical undergraduate degree at DePauw University, Indiana, then joined the US Navy.
Joe met his eventual wife Mara in New Zealand. Once his service was complete, the pair moved to New York and Joe did an introductory course in psychology at Columbia University having become fascinated with human interaction on the navy ships. Joe studied at night and completed research for New York University Medical Centre during the day.
Joe and Mara married and moved to London where he studied social psychology at the School of Economics.
Mara said: “The thread in Joe’s life was a focus on the role of the underlying instinctive drive within different people and environments, from unplanned pregnancy, through the instinctive life of first nation people, through to offenders. When the 1967 Abortion Act was under review, Joe made the subject of his PhD thesis: first pregnancy outcomes outside of marriage. His research was published in the Journal of Biosocial Science before he was drawn into the world of the American Indian and the Navajo Nation.
Joe and Mara spent several years among the Navajo people of the South-western United States, working in special education.
This led to a return to the land of the Maori, New Zealand. He was a researcher for a forensic physciatric study at Otago University Medical School and worked in community care for young people at the Department of Social welfare.
After seven years in New Zealand he joined a colleague and returned to the Navajo Nation to help set up a substance abuse service for adolescents.
Finally, a return to Britain in 1993 brought him into the exploratory world of the Findhorn Foundation, which he had first encountered back in 1972.
Mara remembered: “In 1972 we visited a friend’s mother’s house who had received a brochure from the Findhorn Foundation in the post. Another friend was very interested in this so one day we all drove up and spent an afternoon and evening there. We picked up a tape of songs sung by a group called The Troubadours. While we were in the Navajo Nation, we played that tape over and over. During Joe’s last days we went back to the foundation to celebrate its founder Dorothy Maclean’s 100th birthday and the song was sung. It was I dreamed a dream, which made Joe cry.”
Back in the nineties, work in the Scotland and England followed, in residential programmes for the autistic learning disabled. After four years in London, Joe and Mara settled in Moray where he worked at the foundation, the Moray Association for Mental Health and as caretaker manager for the Brook Sexual Health Service for young people in Inverness.
During his retirement years he was an occasional care-giver within the local community.
“Joe cared for a blind man in Forres,” said Mara. “They sang together in Elgin. We also cared for a lady in Findhorn, cycling out to her home on Saturday nights to help her get ready for bed.”
Joe died on January 30 in his own bed at Cluny Hill Lodge, St Leonard’s Road, in the arms of his wife of 54 years.
Mara said: “He was wonderful. He improvised on the piano, played guitar and sang with St John’s. He was a creative drawer, liked to garden and go hiking. Some described Joe as the quiet American. His funeral was at Wilkie’s Wood, Findhorn, where he was buried in a willow casket. As he was lowered, we sang I dreamed a dream one more time.”