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Bertold (Bert) Francke MD, 84, passed away at his home in West Glover on January 17, 2025, following a period of declining health. As a long-time member of VPSG, Bert brought to our group his passion for psychoanalysis and his support for psychoanalytic training in Vermont. His engagement and dedication were always evident in his contributions to teaching in the OYPSS and VPSG Training Program as well as his enthusiasm for VPSG and VAPS conferences, where he led small group discussions.
Within VPSG, Bert always stood out for his deep interest in academic pursuits. He was passionate about discussing psychoanalytic articles and his translations of words and phrases from Freud’s original writings in German gave depth and greater meaning to our discussions. Bert generously contributed to the InReach Scientific Meetings and wrote wonderful short papers filled with openness, humor and wit. In his later years, he participated in VPSG activities as a quiet, attentive presence; thoughtful and always contributing something meaningful when he spoke. Brief Biography Bert was born November 18th, 1940, in Koslin, Pomerania (Poland), and was raised in Bonn, Germany. As a four-year-old, he witnessed the bombing of Dresden. Bert wrote his first string quartet at age 13 for the family quartet -- his father on cello, his brother on 2nd violin, his mother on viola, and he, himself, on 1st violin. He graduated from the Ernst-Moritz Arndt Gymnasium in Bonn, where he was tutored in composition by his music teacher, and completed his second string quartet. From childhood on, wherever he was living, Francke always played quartets, usually first violin. He attended University in Munich, Germany, moved to the United States in 1969 to do biomedical research at UCLA Medical School in Los Angeles, and from there to San Diego did research at the Salk Institute. After eight years in California, he relocated to New Haven, Connecticut, where he had a lab at Yale. At nearly forty, Bert switched careers, studied psychiatry, completed a psychiatric residency at Saint Vincent’s hospital in NYC, became a psychoanalyst, and relocated to the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, where he joined the Bread and Puppet Theater, and met his late partner, Don Sunseri. Continuing to play and compose string quartets, Francke eventually became medical director at the Vermont State Hospital in Waterbury for six years, and for thirty years directed an octet -- a string quartet and four singers -- that performed Haydn’s Seven Last Words during Easter week all over the state of Vermont. After retiring from the state hospital, Dr. Francke spent six months in Armenia working for Doctors Without Borders. His mission was to help improve the mental health system there. Bert resided with his partner Bob Hunt in Glover, Vermont and practiced psychiatry there until 2021. |
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Berthold Francke
1940-2025 Love and work, work and love...that's all there is 
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PAST LOSSES
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Dr. Douglas Betts passed away March 30th, 2023, from complications associated with COVID. Dr Betts was an Assistant Professor in the UVM Department of Psychiatry for many years and taught residents as a psychotherapy supervisor and Balint Group leader. He served as Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, having completed his Bachelors at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, Canada, and his M.D. At Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He went on to internship and residency in Canada before coming to the states and settling in Burlington in the 1980s.
Douglas and his wife, Carol, also held a monthly analytic study group at their home on South Prospect Street. Bill Butler, Thomas Gazda, Bruce Gibbard, and Sharon Williams Dennett (who all trained in Montreal at the Quebec English Canadian Institute and Society) along with Bert Francke who trained at the William Allison White in NYC, were among those few analysts in Vermont who worked together to teach small psychoanalytic study groups in the community. This was all prior to forming VPSG as a local IPA training opportunity in the late 2009. When VPSG formed, Douglas was one of its early members where he joined in teaching the first class, attended conferences, and famously presented to our then members a wonderful talk on Salvador Dahli. His wide-ranging psychoanalytic interests and his dedication to psychiatry and psychoanalysis were a part of his near boundless energy and enthusiasm. Those of us who learned from Dr. Betts as a supervisor, colleague, enthusiastic student of psychoanalysis and knew him as a dedicated psychoanalyst, working with adults, children and families will miss him and his enthusiasm for all things therapeutic and psychoanalytic. We honor what he brought to the community writ large and to VPSG in its early days. We are humble in the face of his aging and passing and deeply grateful for his contributions. Sharon Williams Dennett |
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Douglas H. Betts
1934-2023 We find a place for what we lose 
The Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dali, 1931 |
David VanBuskirk
1933-2019 May I be alive when I die 
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David VanBuskirk MD, a beloved member of VPSG, passed away on November 4th, 2019. Less than three weeks earlier, he had attended the VPSG 10th Anniversary Soirée, delighting in the occasion, the topic, and his colleagues. Vibrant as ever, he asked a thoughtful and thought-provoking question to the speaker, revealing the wisdom of a seasoned clinician. Dave was a deep thinker and a humble soul who enjoyed sharing his ideas and expertise as much as he did learning from others. Brief Biography Dave graduated from Yale University and Harvard Medical School. He completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital from 1957 to 1959, then was assistant and chief resident in psychiatry at Massachusetts Mental Health Center from 1962 to 1964. He completed psychoanalytic training at the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute, graduating in 1971. He was associate professor of clinical psychiatry at Tufts Medical School, 1968 to 1978, and served on the faculty of Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and at Dartmouth Medical School. Dave was a nationally recognized expert on intensive services for seriously emotionally disturbed children. He joined the faculty of the UVM Medical School in 1991 where he added a psychodynamic perspective to the child and adolescent psychiatry department. He shared his knowledge, scholarship, experience, and compassion with medical students, residents, colleagues and countless others through his many programs, seminars and publications. His collaborations with (and advocacy for) the Vermont Department of Health and the Vermont Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, amongst other providers of mental health services for children, was greatly appreciated. |
Dave, the photographer, on Machu Picchu. Dave was a masterful photographer who spent time over the course of decades supporting traditional textiles and weaving as an economic boost for a remote Peruvian village.
Dave's photograph of an Inca child.
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