Doreen Kilpatrick was a clinical psychologist who practiced in Victoria, Vancouver and Halifax. She taught at UBC and the University of Victoria, specializing in child development and families. She served as a mentor to many psychologists and published research with her colleagues. Outside of her work she was a lover of the arts and was known as an engaged citizen who went out of her way to help others.

A graduate of Oak Bay High School at the age of 16, and then Victoria College and the Provincial Normal School, Doreen was a teacher at Monterey Elementary in 1945 when she met a young naval officer, Alex Kilpatrick, back from convoy duty in the North Atlantic. Through 55 years of marriage, Doreen and Alex raised five children (Diane, Maureen, Rosalyn, Susan, and Bruce).

As the wife of an officer and later commander on active sea duty, Doreen was often in the role of single parent. She moved more than 24 times as an adult, through seven different cities in three countries, often single-handedly with five children in tow. It required organization, adaptability, and stamina and made what she accomplished in her life all the more remarkable. Doreen returned to university when her youngest child headed off to school, and earned three degrees, culminating in a PhD in Psychology from the University of Victoria in 1976.

Doreen’s musical tastes spanned Janis Joplin and Buddy Holly to Pavarotti and Mozart, and she also played the violin. She loved children and books, had an appreciation for art, and maintained a keen sense of adventure that once took her on an extraordinary research road trip across Europe by microbus with a colleague in the early 1970s. She had impeccable taste in clothes, and in her earlier years could be found rowing solo in Deep Cove or enjoying an exhilarating drive in her Alfa Romeo.

Doreen wrote beautiful prose and incisive reports. She loved Shakespeare and, for her, truly enjoying his work meant not only reading and watching, but performing. She was an intelligent, gracious, and upbeat person with an unfailing interest in helping others. She will be sadly missed and forever remembered with love.

In honour of Doreen’s memory, please make a donation to the Diane Kilpatrick Memorial Scholarship. Doreen was devoted to her family, and this scholarship was established by family, friends and associates in memory of her daughter, a young Vancouver lawyer and UBC law graduate, who predeceased her in 1983.

The scholarship is awarded to a woman student entering second year in the Faculty of Law, who has demonstrated good academic standing and an interest in helping others.