The sudden death of Don Capps in an automobile accident has deprived CPSP, as well as the entire clinical pastoral community, of arguably the wisest voice of our generation in the field of clinical pastoral work. He was this generation's most prodigious and prolific writer in our field. And fortunately for us, we are left with his extensive body of literature. This, of course, is no substitute for his wise and humane personal presence which so many of us experienced. Not to mention his colorful sense of humor and his knack for poetry, which often tested boundaries of polite society. Don was a good friend to many of us in CPSP, and to the community itself. He was the principal speaker at our Eleventh Plenary meeting in 2001, at Virginia Beach and was given the Helen Flanders Dunbar Award by CPSP in 2013.
The principal contribution of Don Capps to our field was his consistent work of correlating psychology and theology, represented most powerfully in his 2008 work, Jesus the Village Psychiatrist. In so many ways Don Capps emphasized the importance of the person of the minister as the singular therapeutic tool.
His wife Karen was also injured in the same accident, and we wish her a full recovery, and solace in her grief.
Raymond Lawrence, General Secretary
raymondlawrence@cpsp.org