NASW Foundation National Programs

NASW Social Work Pioneers^®

Kurt Reichert (1916-2006)

Kurt Reichert was born in Born, Austria, in 1916. He became a U.S. citizen in 1943. He received a B.A. in 1940 from Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota, an M.A. from the University of Chicago, School of Social Work, in 1946, and a Ph.D. in 1955 from the School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, with a minor in Public Health. His dissertation was The Management of Family and Socio-Environemtal Problems as Viewed by Physicians in Private Practice in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Kurt's professional career included working with the Jewish Family and Community Service, Chicago as a caseworker; U. S. Navy Hospital Corps; Scholarship and Guidance Association, Chicago; Home Service, Hennepin County Chapter, American Red Cross; Assistant Professor and Chief Psychiatric Social Worker, University of Minnesota Medical School and Hospitals; Cultural Affairs Division, United States High Commission in Germany; Lecturer of Social Work, Research Associate, University of Minnesota School of Social Work; Consultant and Special Lecturer in Public Health, School of Social Work, Syracuse University; Director, Office of Public Health Social Work, New York Department of Health; Social Work Consultant, VISTA, Office of Economic Opportunity; Associate Professor of Social Work and Social Research, Bryn Mawr College; Director, Division of Standards and Accreditation, Council on Social Work Education; Dean, School of Social Work San Diego State University; Professor and Coordinator, Health Concentration, School of Social Work, San Diego State University; and Professor Emeritus of Social Work, San Diego University.

His professional activities and affilitations were many. They included Chairman, New York State Council of Chapters; President-Elect and President NASW (1962-5); Steering Committee, San Diego Region; Council of Social Work Education; Society for Hospital Social Work Directors; American Public Health Association; National Conference on Social Welfare; International Council on Soicial Welfare; International Schools of Social Work; State Welfare Conference - Minnesota and New York; and International Federation of Social Workers.

His awards were many: Outstanding Service Award, Social Work Section, American Public Health Association; Outstanding Achievement Award, Regent of the University of Minnesota; Professional Leadership Award, National Association of Social Workers, with his wife, Betty Reichert; Social Work Educators of the Year Award, California Chapter, National Association of Social Workers; and honorable Mention by National Association of University Stations for broadscast "Outstanding" with his wife Betty Reichert.

He was the author and contributor of forty some papers and publications and was a reviewer and/or consultant of a number of editorial boards.

Kurt died on May 14, 2006. He planned to participate in the San Diego Actors Alliance Festival in July, performing a reading of Chekhov's THE HARMFULNESS OF TOBACCO. His slot was filled with a recitation of his poems, performed by several of his many friends in the San Diego theater community in which he had been active for the past 25 years.