Faith and Dying:
Perspectives on Meaning at Life’s End
11:00 AM • General Motors Classroom
In modern American society, it is easy to avoid the reality of death. We send our elderly to nursing homes and our sick to hospital wards, quarantined from the communities in which they once lived. Nevertheless, death is a reality we all must face; we must also address the questions, doubts, and sometimes hopes that come with it. What, then, does it look like to die well? What is most important to those who are dying? How does faith influence the final days of one’s life?
This session will focus on those things in life that matter most when facing death and dying. Panelists, including both ministers and medical professionals, will draw from both personal experience and practice in their fields to discuss how faith integrates with palliative care, end-of-life decisions, and perspectives on dying.
Moderator
Rev. Richard Crocker, Ph.D.
Chaplain, Dartmouth College
Virginia Rice Kelsey ‘61s Dean of the William Jewett Tucker Foundation
Richard Crocker, Ph.D. is the Chaplain of Dartmouth College, as well as the Virginia Rice Kelsey '61s Dean of the Tucker Foundation. Chaplain Crocker is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (USA). He is a graduate of Brown University, with an AB and MA in English and American literature. Chaplain Crocker was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University, and holds the M.Div. and Ph.D. degrees from Vanderbilt University. He is a licensed pastoral psychotherapist.
Chaplain Crocker is a native of Alabama. He is interested in the intersection of psychology and religion, as well as the interaction of religion and politics.
Panelists
Fr. Myles Sheehan, MD D’78 DMS’81
Provincial, New England Province of Jesuits
Former Senior Associate Dean, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine
Fr. Myles N. Sheehan, SJ is the Provincial of the Society of Jesus of New England. Fr. Sheehan is a 1978 and a 1981 graduate of Dartmouth Medical School. He trained in Internal Medicine at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston as well as fellowship training in Geriatric Medicine from the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School. From 1995 to 2009, Fr. Sheehan was on the faculty of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. From 2000 he served as Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and was named the Ralph P. Leischner Professor and Chair of Medical Education. Fr. Sheehan is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians and was named one of Chicago’s Top Doctors consistently from 2001 through 2009. Fr. Sheehan specialized in care of the elderly with particular attention to memory loss and cognitive disorders, as well as writing and speaking about end of life care and improved palliative care.
In 2009, Fr. Sheehan was appointed Provincial of the Society of Jesus of New England. He entered the Society in 1985 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1994. Fr. Sheehan was born in 1956, grew up in Marshfield, Massachusetts, and is happy to be back home in New England, even though he misses Chicago!
Deborah J. L. Scott, MD
General Internist, Mt. Ascutney Hospital, Windsor, VT
Dr. Scott practices Internal Medicine at Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Windsor, Vermont. She received her M.D. from George Washington University and completed her training at Dartmouth. She is Board Certified in Internal Medicine and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Before joining the Mt. Ascutney staff, Dr. Scott worked in Internal Medicine at Alice Peck Day Hospital, where she also served as Medical Staff President. Dr. Scott has also served as Medical Director for the Cedar Hill Nursing Home in Windsor, Vermont, and mentored medical students on clinical rotations to her practice.
Dr. Scott credits a high school experience on a Teen Missions project in Guatemala as a significant factor in her later career path. Two years ago, she returned to Guatemala with a small group providing health care for rural village residents. She is active in the First Congregational Church of Lebanon, where she leads a weekly Bible Study and serves on the Diaconate.
Dr. Scott enjoys family life with her husband and 2 college-age sons. Before college, she toured as a performer with the Ice Capades and directed teaching at a rink in Michigan. She continues to enjoy skating and teaches beginners for the Hartford Recreation Department.
Robert W. Lobel, MD D’83
Urogynecology / Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery, Albany, NY
Dr. Lobel received his undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College in computer science and his medical degree from Oral Roberts University. Following residency in Phoenix and fellowship in Chicago at Northwestern University Medical School, he moved to Albany to found the Division of Urogynecology and Reconstructive Pelvic Surgery at Albany Medical College. He then launched his private practice ten years ago. Dr. Lobel is the recipient of both local and national awards for his research endeavors and has written many articles in medical journals and textbooks.
Although he has witnessed his share of death and dying professionally, Dr Lobel has come starkly face to face with the topic of this session on two occasions, first with the death of his second child to SIDS in 1985 and, most profoundly, with the death of his wife of almost 30 years to stomach cancer last year.
