In Memoriam: Dr. Brandt
F. Steele, pioneer
of child protection movement
Brandt F. Steele, MD, professor emeritus of psychiatry, CU School of Medicine
and Kempe Children’s Center, was an internationally respected psychiatrist
best known for his work in child abuse prevention. Steele was 97. He died
of natural causes.
The CU School of Medicine will hold a memorial service for Dr. Steele in the
coming weeks.
“Brandt Steele will be remembered by generations of psychiatrists and
others at the CU School of Medicine for his extraordinary contributions to
our understanding of human violence,” said Richard Krugman, MD, dean
of the CU School of Medicine. “More importantly, he will be remembered
and thanked by thousands of families who he and his work helped.”
Dr. Steele, along with CU School of Medicine pediatrician Dr. C. Henry Kempe,
co-authored the Battered Child Syndrome, an article published by the Journal
of American Medical Association in July, 1962. With the publication of
this article, there was finally an understanding of how to address and treat
cases of child abuse and neglect. This article is still regarded by JAMA
as one of the 50 most important contributions to medicine in the 20th century.
Dr. Steele was instrumental in the development of the National Center for
the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect, now called the Kempe
Children’s Center. Today, Kempe Children’s Center is regarded
as a world leader in the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect.
“Brandt supported the development of the Kempe Children’s Center
over the past four decades, providing the faculty, staff, and numerous scholars
with support and wisdom and hope,” said Gail Ryan, director of the Kempe
Perpetration Prevention Program.
While Kempe and others focused on diagnosing injuries, helping the courts
distinguish between accidental and non accidental causes of injuries, and
developing child protection legislation, Dr. Steele worked to figure out why
parents would abuse their children, and what might be done to help them stop.
Dr. Steele is quoted as saying, “We’re not really experts. We’re
just curious people trying to figure out how to help families do better.”
From the beginning, Dr. Steele recognized that many parents parent their own
children as they themselves were parented, but he also knew that not all abused
children became abusive parents. He knew about “resiliency” and
“protective factors” and “sensitive parenting” before
the field even had words and definitions for those things.
His curiosity reached back into history where he was interested in how both
ancient and modern cultures had viewed and cared for children and was quick
to point out that the abuse and exploitation of children was nothing new.
What was new was the knowledge about the problem, and society’s commitment
to do something better. As early as the 1970’s Dr. Steele had studied
the childhood experiences of prisoners at the state penitentiary in Canon
City and had seen the evidence that violence breeds violence – a fact
that scientists have gone on to prove again and again in recent years.
“Professionals throughout the world have read and been changed by chapters
written by Brandt about how to enter into a relationship with a parent and
help them become able to change,” Ryan said. “His influence have
spread not through his own fame so much as through the many young people who
have gone on to use his wisdom in their own work.”
Child psychiatrist Ruth Kempe, widow of Dr. Henry Kempe, also worked closely
with Brandt Steele. Ruth Kempe said: “It was extremely fortunate for
the field that Brandt was the psychiatrist that began to see the parents and
evaluate the families. Brandt was able to see them not as traditional psychiatric
patients, but simply as distressed people who often because of their own childhood
history had a particularly difficult problem with parenting. This approach
enabled Henry and Brandt to provide treatment programs that addressed the
parents as much as the children. He knew that these parents were not villains
and that they loved their children, they just didn’t know how to love
them well.”
An accomplished researcher, Dr. Steele authored many books and dozens of papers
and journal articles.
Dr. Steele received his BS from Indiana University where he studied under
then Professor of Biology Alfred Kinsey on entomology. He then graduated with
his medical degree from Indiana University School of Medicine. He interned
at Boston City Hospital on a Harvard Research Fellowship and was head resident
on a Cornell University Fellowship at Bellevue Hospital.
Despite severe polio in 1941, he enlisted in the U.S. Army Medical Corps,
where he served in England, France, Belgium and Germany, including the Battle
of the Bulge. He was discharged in 1945. He completed his residency at the
University of Pennsylvania where we went on to teach as a Lecturer in Psychiatry.
He joined the faculty at the CU School of Medicine in 1958.
Steele is survived by his two sons, Brandt N. and Thomas, eight grandchildren,
and five great-grandchildren. In 1929, he married Margaret Elrod, the mother
of his two sons. In 1946, he married Eleanor Steele who was herself a prominent
psychoanalyst in Philadelphia and Denver. Together, they co-founded the Denver
Psychoanalytic Institute.
Memorial donations can be made to the Brandt F. Steele, MD, Endowment Fund
at the Kempe Children’s Foundation, 1825 Marion Street, Denver, CO,
80218. The phone number is 303-864-5300 or Web address is
www.kempe.org.
Located in Denver, Colo., the Kempe Children’s Foundation raises funds
and awareness for the Kempe Children's Center’s groundbreaking work
to prevent, research and treat child abuse and neglect.
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