Alan C. Mermann

NORFOLK — Alan C. Mermann, 91, distinguished and beloved pediatrician, professor, pastor and chaplain, died on May 23, 2015. 

Dr. Mermann was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on June 23, 1923, to Ada (McCree) and William Joseph Mermann. He graduated high school in Baldwin, N.Y. 

Dr. Mermann received his B.A. degree from Lehigh University in 1943 and his M.D. degree from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1947. He was an intern at Bellevue Hospital in New York City and at the Johns Hopkins Hospital and completed his residency at Memorial Hospital in New York. 

Following military service as a lieutenant in the medical corps of the U.S. Navy Reserve, he was a research fellow at Sloan-Kettering Institute. 

Dr. Mermann married Constance Barnes in 1948. In 1954, the couple moved to Guilford, Conn., where they raised their four daughters. It was in Guilford that Dr. Mermann established his private pediatric practice, the first one in Guilford’s history. For a time, he alone served the Connecticut shoreline from New Haven to New London, making house calls when this had long gone out of fashion. Many remember him riding his bike to his office or around town. A specialist in pediatric hematology and oncology, he was also appointed to the faculty of the Yale University School of Medicine as a clinical instructor in pediatrics in 1954. 

Dr. Mermann and his family were longtime members of the First Congregational Church of Guilford, where he served as deacon and later as assistant minister. Through his faith and medical training, he was active in civil rights and peace efforts throughout his life. His daughter Connie reflects, “My father taught me that it is incumbent on us, the fortunate ones, to care in whatever ways we can, for the less fortunate. No matter if a family could not afford to pay their doctor’s bill, they received the same kind of medical care from him as those who could pay.” 

During the 1960s, Dr. Mermann was a volunteer physician for the Medical Committee for Human Rights, seeking to improve the health of schoolchildren and migrant workers in Alabama, Tennessee and Florida. He was one of a team of doctors, including Robert Coles, who testified before the U.S. Senate and co-authored the report on child malnutrition that helped launch President Johnson’s War on Hunger. During the turmoil of the Vietnam War years, the Mermanns also held many anti-war meetings in their living room, which was always filled to capacity.  

In 1979, Dr. Mermann became a clinical professor at the School of Medicine at Yale. That same year, after six years of study, he received his Masters of Divinity from Yale Divinity School and was ordained a minister of the United Church of Christ. Those years of study and introspection culminated in Dr. Mermann leaving his pediatric practice in 1982 and redirecting his work in ministry. 

At that time, after 40 years of marriage, he and his wife were divorced. He was appointed the second and last chaplain of the School of Medicine at Yale in 1983, a position he held for 17 years. As chaplain, Dr. Mermann also chaired the Committee on Pediatric Ethics at Yale New Haven Hospital and taught courses to medical students on ethics and chronic and terminal illnesses. He was the author of several books focusing on faith and ethics, including “Some Chose To Stay: Faith and Ethics in a Time of Plague” and “To Do No Harm: Learning to Care for the Seriously Ill.” 

On his retirement from his chaplaincy he reflected that his interactions with students and his work combining ministry and teaching were “a gift.” 

During his tenure as chaplain, Dr. Mermann married his second wife, Cecily, an art therapist working at Yale Psychiatric Institute and St. Raphael’s Hospital. The couple retired to Norfolk, where he was and Cecily still is actively involved in the First Congregational, United Church of Christ, the Yale School of Music, the Norfolk Chamber Music series and the Norfolk Eldridge Library. 

Dr. Mermann’s ministry continued even in retirement as he served for many years as the associate and, for a time, interim minister of the church and voluntarily visited the elderly at Noble Horizons and Geer, where he himself spent the last nine months of his life. An avid gardener, lover of music and books, devoted husband, father and grandfather, his life was a gift. 

Dr. Mermann is survived by his wife, Cecily; his four daughters, Deedee Prisloe and her husband, Sandy, Connie Vitale, Sarah Troja and her husband, John, and Beth Mermann; his two stepdaughters, Andrea Reynolds and her husband, Tony Pettinato, and Cameron Hardy and her husband, Bill; his stepson, Bradford Reynolds; 10 grandchildren, Benjamin Vitale, Rachel (Vitale) Smith, Brian DeFelice, Annie (Prisloe) Cappiello, Kate, Jane and Max Troja, Devin and Lena Hardy and David Pettinato; and five great-grandchildren. 

He was predeceased by his first wife, Constance. 

A memorial service for Dr. Mermann will be held on July 11 at the First Congregational, United Church of Christ in Norfolk. He will be honored at Yale University at a later date. 

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Dr. Mermann’s honor to the Children’s Defense Fund, www.childrensdefense.org.