University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: August 7, 2003

Ellen Dickinson, interim chair of Department of Psychiatry

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday in Faith United Methodist Church, 1449 Quaker Road, Barker, for Ellen S. Dickinson, a neurologist and psychiatrist who served as interim chair of the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Dickinson died on July 31 in Roswell Park Cancer Institute after a brief illness. She was 61.

A clinical assistant professor, Dickinson had taught at the UB medical school since 1971 and had served on many university committees, including served a term as co-chair of the medical school's admissions committee.

Dickinson also was clinical director of psychiatric services at Erie County Medical Center for eight years. In May 2002, she was the first woman honored as Physician of the Year at ECMC's annual Springfest.

A native of Barker in Niagara County, she was a graduate of Barker Central High School and won a state Science Congress Award presented by Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller.

She received a bachelor's degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a medical degree from Indiana University.

Dickinson served a neurology residency at E.J. Meyer Memorial Hospital in Buffalo and worked as a neurologist there and at Millard Fillmore, the VA Medical Center and BryLin hospitals. She was chair of the psychiatry department at Millard Fillmore from 1992-95.

She fulfilled her dream of having a double specialty when she went to Cornell University for residency training in psychiatry in 1983.

She also was a medical officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, reaching the rank of major.

In May, Dickinson was named a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. She was a past president of its Western New York branch.

She enjoyed fishing trips to Ontario, cooking, art collecting and summer trips to one of the three cottages she owned in Somerset.