Emmett F. Hoctor

(1896-1986) born at Omaha. Psychiatrist, hospital administrator, while superintendent of State Hospital at Farmington, Missouri from 1925 to 1963 and a staff member until 1977, he advocated revolutionary and humane theories that emphasized treatment of patients with regard for their total being and relationships with fellow human beings, the placement of patients in foster homes whenever possible, and he pioneered the desegregation of state hospitals in 1953 by admitting an ill African-American; inducted into the Creighton University Hall of Fame, recipient of several Missouri honors, received in 1967 the Knight of St. Gregory Award, the highest honor given to a Catholic layman bestowed by the Pope. Consult St. Louis Post- Dispatch Sunday Magazine, September 27, 1931, pp. 4, 7 and William Stewart and John Stewart, Let me Not Be Mad, Sweet Heaven: Dr. Emmett F. Hoctor's Years at Missouri State Hospital No 4 (Fireside Books, 1968) and Missouri Life, January/February 1984, pp. 60-62.

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