Gilbert Clapperton, a clinical psychologist who established Loyola University's Department of Psychology more than four decades ago, died Dec. 29 of lung cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care.
The longtime Lutherville resident was 71.
Dr. Clapperton, the son of an anesthesiologist and a homemaker, was born and raised in Lewiston, Maine.
After graduating from Lewiston High School in 1957, he earned a bachelor's degree in 1962 from Bates College.
He earned a master's degree in clinical psychology in 1963 from the University of New Hampshire, and a year later, his doctorate in the discipline from Baylor University in Waco, Texas.
After completing an internship at Spring Grove State Hospital, Dr. Clapperton was recruited by then-Loyola College in 1968 to establish a department of psychology and serve as department chairman.
During his tenure, Dr. Clapperton implemented the university's first master's program in clinical psychology and counseling. In 1996, he established the doctoral psychology program.
Charles T. LoPresto, a psychology professor at Loyola since 1986, had been Dr. Clapperton's teaching assistant.
"I consider him one of my mentors and I learned a great deal from him," said Dr. LoPresto. "Gil was an always cool, calm and collected clinician who had a certain way about himself. A slight grin would come across his face as he sized up a situation. He was an expert in chilling when thinking about situations."
Dr. LoPresto described Dr. Clapperton as a "very good critical thinker and a visionary who didn't draw attention to himself and shunned the spotlight. He was an easygoing and decent man."
Dr. LoPresto said while his colleague wasn't a "warm and fuzzy guy" when it came to his students, they knew that by the time they left his classroom, they would have a thorough understanding of the complexities of the Rorschach test.
"He was a great teacher but a no-nonsense one. No one taught Rorschach better than Gil," he said.
Dr. Clapperton's scholarly interests included executive selection and employment screening, psychotherapy outcome and process, aggression, ethics and psychotherapy.
He retired from Loyola in 2000.
In addition to his university work, Dr. Clapperton also maintained a private clinical practice, which he founded in 1968 with Kenneth S. Sachs, also a clinical psychologist.
The two men met as doctoral students at Baylor and after earning their doctorates and completing the Spring Grove State Hospital internship, established Psychology Consultants P.A. in Lutherville.
"We became good friends at Baylor. I'm from Philadelphia, and Baltimore was close, so we started talking about developing a group, and then did," Dr. Sachs said.
"An early client was the Baltimore City Police Department, where we handled the psychological selection process for candidates and later we expanded that to include stress management for police officers," he said. "We later had the Maryland State Police and 10 other smaller police jurisdictions such as Harford and Carroll counties."
He described Dr. Clapperton as being "extremely bright, perceptive, hardworking and very insightful. He was a very warm and compassionate man."
Dr. Sachs said that Dr. Clapperton inspired "a great deal of trust" with his patients to whom he was in many ways a "father figure."
"They were very attracted to him because Gil always exhibited common sense and had a lot of wisdom," he said.
Dr. Clapperton, who had not retired from private practice, was still seeing patients as recently as two weeks ago, said his wife of 50 years, the former Helene Cloutier, who met her husband when they were sixth-graders attending Lewiston public schools.
Dr. Clapperton enjoyed spending time at a Middle River cottage, where he sailed and went crabbing with his sons.
"He considered himself the best amateur crabber in Middle River," his wife said.
While he enjoyed the sport of crabbing, he actually preferred eating lobster.
"After all, he was from Maine and thought that it took a lot of work for so little," Mrs. Clapperton said, laughing.
Dr. Clapperton enjoyed returning to Maine in the summer and visiting family.
"He was a very humble man and not ostentatious. He never bragged about his many accomplishments," Mrs. Clapperton said.
Services were Monday.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Clapperton is survived by two sons, Scott J. Clapperton of Baltimore and John A. Clapperton of Pikesville.