Dr. JAMES CONNAUGHTON was a revered Johns Hopkins child psychiatry faculty member and tremendously talented clinician who treated and cared for some of East Baltimore’s most vulnerable children.
Dr. Connaughton was born and raised in Dublin, Ireland. After graduating from Rockwell College, a Tipperary boarding school, he entered University College Dublin (UCD), now known as National University of Ireland (NUI), where he earned his medical degree in 1956. In 1958 he came to Baltimore to be a psychiatry resident at Seton Psychiatric Institute under the direction of Dr. Leo Bartemier, completing the program in 1961. He then moved to Marquette University where he was an assistant professor of psychiatry, a senior staff psychiatrist at Milwaukee Psychiatric Hospital, and a consultant to the Veterans Administration Hospital in Wood, Wisconsin. During that period, he was an adviser for the evaluation and training of the first several classes of Peace Corps volunteers.
Accepting a fellowship in child psychiatry and pediatrics in the department of pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Connaughton returned to Baltimore in 1965, embarking on a journey that resulted in a 31-year clinical career devoted to child psychiatry and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. During his tenure he trained a generation of child psychiatrists, pediatricians and psychologists, while remaining devoted to the care of the most underserved and traumatized children in the community.
From 1967 until 1981, Dr. Connaughton directed numerous programs at Hopkins. He also served as a consultant to the Dundalk Mental Health Clinic, Catholic Charities of Baltimore, Oldfields School, The Children’s Guild, the John F. Kennedy Institute, Villa Maria Treatment Center and the Francis Scott Key Community Psychiatry Program.
Dr. Connaughton was the founder and the first director of the Children’s Mental Health Center, whose operations he oversaw until 1993. He also worked very closely with the Baltimore city school system’s division of special education, various community health programs and the East Baltimore Mental Health Center. In addition, he was the founding director of the child psychiatry inpatient unit.
Board certified by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in both adult and child psychiatry, Dr. Connaughton was also a Distinguished Life Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and a fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the United Kingdom. His medical residents voted him Teacher of the Year several times to honor their dedication to their mentor. Until his retirement in 1997, he worked passionately to promote awareness of the scourge of child abuse both in the local and widespread community.
Fascinated with the ever-changing face of hospital administration, Dr. Connaughton earned a master’s degree in the business of medicine in 2002 from the Johns Hopkins University.
Dr. Connaughton passed away in 2011 at the age of 80. His many contributions to Johns Hopkins will be long remembered and his legacy continues through the work of the child psychiatrists whom he trained throughout his distinguished career.
CHAIRHOLDER TO BE NAMED